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THIRTY YEARS 

ANGLO-FRENCH REMINISCENCES 






mm 




FROM A WATER-COLOUR DRAWING OF THE AUTHOR, BY TOCHE, 3906. 



THIRTY YEARS 

ANGLO - FRENCH REMINISCENCES 
(1876—1906) 



SIR THOMAS BARCLAY 

AUTHOR OF " PROBLEMS OF INTERNATIONAL PRACTICE AND DIPLOMACY, 
" THE TURCO-ITALIAN WAR AND ITS PROBLEMS," &C. 




BOSTON & NEW YORK 
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

1914 



31 A 4-7 

-I 
.3Z- 



<^/<£ W^ 



PREFACE 

This book is due to a request made some years 
ago for a volume of memoirs. The present reminis- 
cences include so much about myself that they are 
in fact memoirs as regards my connection with 
France and the genesis and fulfilment of the Entente. 

My Anglo-German reminiscences, which cover a 
longer period, my short but intensely busy stay in 
America in 1903-4, my connection with the solution 
of the Balkan crisis of 1908-9, and other matters not 
directly affecting Anglo-French relations, with which 
I have had to do, are beyond the scope of and are not 
dealt with in the present volume. 

I have tried throughout to preserve the more or 
less colloquial style which the title of the book 
implies, and have avoided as much as possible 
writing a history of Anglo-French relations under 
the Republic. When the archives of the two Foreign 
Offices and the letters and memoirs of several foreign 
ministers and diplomatists still living become avail- 
able, a future generation will be better able than any 
contemporary writers to understand the true meaning 
of events which at present we can only interpret by 
surmise. 

These reminiscences not only are not intended to 
give a consecutive or exhaustive narrative of the 
period they cover, but they relate only to the matters 
with which I have been more or less in contact, and 
the reader must look for nothing further. I have 



PREFACE 

tried at any rate to be accurate, and if they give a 
one-man view of events, they are the views of a man 
who has been very close to the stage, who has not 
been deceived by the paint and decoration, and has 
throughout heard too much of the " directions " 
from the wings to be taken in by any artificial 
perspective. 

I have avoided speaking of some of the actors 
and giving my impressions of some of their per- 
formances, but that has been because I have dis- 
trusted my own judgment where personal feeling 
might warp it, and in diplomacy, as in politics, it is 
easier to be critical than to do better. 

Occasionally the reader will meet with digressions 
he may resent when getting interested in some 
subject. He must think himself in a club smoking- 
room with a talkative member, getting on in years, 
who must tell you a thing " by the by," and remember 
that he is only reading reminiscences. 

I have to thank the proprietors of The limes, the 
Westminster Gazette, the Standard, the Daily Telegraph, 
the Manchester Guardian, the Scotsman, the Fortnightly 
Review, the Contemporary Review, and the Monthly 
Review, and the writers and owners of the different 
letters I have reproduced — as well as the authors 
and publishers where the letters have already been 
published — for their kind permission to quote them. 
I have also quoted largely from the now extinct Daily 
Messenger, whose services, under the management of 
Mr. Albert Keyzer, to the cause of Anglo-French 
friendship, I wish especially to acknowledge. 

T. B. 

Athenaeum, 
April, 1914. 

vi 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 
I. 


Launched in Paris . 


PAGE 
I 


II. 


Republican Salad Days and Bismarck 


24 


III. 


Anti-English Symptoms. — Gambetta 


36 


IV. 


Egypt ....... 


52 


V. 


A Disciple of Cobden . 


62 


VI. 


A Tariff-Mongering Era . 


75 


VII. 


Storms Ahead ..... 


82 


VIII. 


Boulanger's Bluff .... 


95 


IX. 


Expansion and Unrest 


104 


X. 


From Bad to Worse 


121 


XI. 


Appeal to an Ancient Friendship 


129 


XII. 


The Patriotard Wave 


135 


XIII. 


Fashoda ...... 


144 


XIV. 


National Wrath .... 


. *S7 


XV. 


Mixed Impressions .... 


. 165 


XVI. 


The Dawn of Better Feeling . 


175 


XVII. 


A Propitious Moment and More thai 


r 




Usual about the Author 


190 


XVIII. 


Fighting for Peace .... 


. 209 


XIX. 


The ENTENTE in Sight 


. 217 


XX. 


The Achievement .... 


. 230 


XXI. 


An Anglo-American Interlude 


■ 237 


XXII. 


The Squaring-up .... 
vii 


. 242 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 



XXIII. A New Era— Germany ... 253 

XXIV. A "Revanche" 274 

XXV. Past and Present Efforts — Danger of 

Drift .....•• 

XXVI. Stumbling Blocks 

XXVII. Afterwords 

APPENDICES. 

I. Presidents of the Republic 
II. French Prime Ministers and Ministers of 
Foreign Affairs since 1870 

III. French Ambassadors to London since 1870 . 

IV. British Secretaries of State for Foreign 

Affairs since 1870 . 

V. British Ambassadors to Paris since 1870 . 

VI. Summary of Arguments, British and French, 

in Favour of Arbitration Treaty and 

Entente ...-•• 

VII. Unofficial Support given to the Movement. 

VIII. Text of Anglo-French Treaty of 

Arbitration ....-• 

IX. Letter from Lord Lyons to Lord Granville 

on the Situation in 1884 

X. M. Hanotaux on British Diplomacy . 

XL Papers relating to the Franco-Scottish 

Society and the Scots College in Paris . 

XII. Pledge and Rules of the International 

Brotherhood Alliance .... 



Vin 



THIRTY YEARS 



CHAPTER I 

LAUNCHED IN PARIS 



" You must give me your answer at once ; Alge 
is not strong, Blowitz is away, and our third man 
must be installed at the rue Vivienne by Monday 
night." 

Thus spoke John Macdonald, the then manager of 
The Times, a kind and considerate man by nature, 
but in business, masterful and often uncompromising. 

He had wired me on the Saturday morning to meet 
him at Printing House Square, and on the following 
Monday night, in May, 1876, after no more notice than 
the few minutes in which I had to make up my mind, 
the most momentous step in my career was taken and 
the whole course of my subsequent life determined. 

Paris from that moment till 1909 remained the 

centre of my affairs and my home. 

# # * # * 

I had been saturated with things French from my 
childhood. My grandfather was a noted Scottish 
politician, a Hellenist, a student of French litera- 
ture, and a philosopher, who thought Aristotle, 
Hume, and especially Voltaire, had got closer to 
intellectual " common sense " than had the Edinburgh 
school who labelled themselves with the term. He 
was such a believer in the emancipating character of 

T.Y. I B 



THIRTY YEARS 

French culture that he sent all his children to pass 
some years in Paris. Access to German culture he con- 
sidered less interesting to a Scotsman, but he wished 
his children to know the German language as added 
strength to their capabilities, and my grandmother, 
who spoke French fluently, learnt also German at the 
same time as my aunts at Neuwied on the Rhine. 

In this highly-cultured family at Cupar-Fife, 
" famed for litigation," as an ironical Cupar teacher 
used to call it, 1 I passed much of my early life. 

To my young imagination the very name of France 
seemed to stand for all that was free, brilliant and 
reasonable. 

" What," said my old Whig grandfather, " do 
political systems matter except to put one set of men 
in office in the place of others ! They are all the mere 
tools of the thinkers. What really matters is freedom 
to think, speculate, talk, write about every conceivable 
thing." 

Paris was my Mecca. The French intellect, I had 
been taught, was the motive-power which was driving 
the machinery of the human mind throughout the 
world. 

I had just passed two years at the University of 
Jena, the two most delightful years of my life, for there 
for the first time I had been allowed to do individual 
work and research for myself instead of merely 
learning the wisdom of others. Germany, moreover, 
had broken loose from the old wisdom. Nobody in 
1873-5 read any philosophical writer but Spencer, and 

1 What Scotsman knows not the proverb " He that will to Cupar maun 
to Cupar ? " The inhabitants of the " Kingdom," as Fife is called in 
Scotland, are notoriously litigious folk, and Cupar is the place where the 
Sheriff of Fife distributes justice to them. 



LAUNCHED IN PARIS 

little of him. Darwin had overturned the tottering 
German idols. The professors were still sweeping the 
wreckage into the back yard, where the bits were being 
carefully collected by English university men and 
carried off to Oxford to be pieced together again. 
One of the " repairers " was my late uncle-in-law, 
Professor Wallace of Oxford, himself a distinguished 
philosopher, who wrote the famous " Prolegomena " to 
an English translation of Hegel's Logic, and was one 
of the worshippers of its then, in Germany, discarded 
author. Prof. Eucken, by the by, had just been 
"called" to Jena in succession to Kuno Fischer. I 
remember the disappointment at the loss of this 
somewhat histrionic lecturer, who had gone to Heidel- 
berg, whither many students flitted after him. 

I am tempted to go beyond the scope of this volume 
and talk about a German university of forty years 
ago. All I can say here is that the University of Jena 
was the leading revoltee. It was the joint university of 
three States, Saxe- Weimar-Eisenach, Saxe-Meiningen, 
and Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. The representative of the 
joint administrative interests explained to me why 
Jena possessed such independence as compared with 
other German universities. " One master," he said, 
" is a master ; two masters are half a master ; and 
three masters are none ! " 

After having absorbed the new scientific spirit and 
revelled in this intellectual freedom, I saw, later on, 
the conventional spirit growing again under the new 
order, professors of the new order treating as heretics 
those of a still newer order, and even Darwinism taking 
its place among the creeds. 

From my great teacher, Professor Hildebrand, I 

3 B 2 



THIRTY YEARS 

brought a letter of introduction to the famous 
Dr. Farr. 

Dr. William Farr was Superintendent of the 
Statistical Department of the Registrar General's 
office at Somerset House, had studied medicine in 
Paris, and was a corresponding member of the 
Institute of France. He was the greatest living 
authority on the statistics of disease and life. The 
life tables, with values of annuities and premiums for 
single and joint lives, in use by the British insurance 
companies, in fact, were drawn up by him. 

He was a short, dark man, not unlike the late Henry 
Labouchere. When I first knew him, he was in his 
seventieth year. Professor Hildebrand considered 
him as the creator of accurate statistics. 

Dr. Farr advised me to take up the subject of 
comparative criminology, and examine our tables of 
criminal statistics, which he regarded as trivial and 
misleading, in minute detail. I did so, and published 
a long article of several columns on them in The Times. 
On the strength of this article he proposed me as a 
Fellow of the Statistical Society, and introduced me 
to the leading statisticians as one of the fraternity. 

The above-mentioned article was followed by 
another, showing the fallacy of the current statistics 
of drink, and then by a third, analysing the wealth of 
England, in connection with the Income Tax returns, 
which had been the subject of my " dissertation " for 
the Doctorate at Jena. 

Through Dr. Farr I made the acquaintance of that 
most illuminating of books, Descartes' " Discours sur la 
Methode," which he always had at hand, to dip into for 
a mental bath, whenever his mind was getting fagged. 

In those days, by the by, the organization of Somer- 

4 



LAUNCHED IN PARIS 

set House was very different from what it is now. 
When I called on Dr. Farr, I had to apply at the office 
of the head clerk, a Mr. Williams, who danced attend- 
ance on his chief as no civil servant of to-day would 
be expected to do. Dr. Farr had a long room looking 
out into the yard, reached through Williams' room, 
and without access except through it. Those were 
feudal days, in which democracy had not yet asserted 
its right to a liveried attendant. 

Dr. Farr was just then keen on his theory of value, 
and most anxious that I should bring it to Hilde- 
brand's notice, which I did. It was set out in a paper 
printed in the Journal of the Statistical Society (Septem- 
ber, 1876), on " the valuation of railways, telegraphs, 
water companies, canals and other commercial con- 
cerns, with prospective, deferred, increasing, decreasing 
or terminating profits." I commend it, in spite of its 
not very thrilling title, to the attention of those who 
think, as Dr. Farr did, that railways must eventually 
be taken over by the State. The object of his paper 
was to establish a scientific basis of valuation in 

view of such an emergency. 

# # # # # 

Another good friend of those days was my father's col- 
league, A. J. Wilson, at that time the assistant financial 
editor of The Times and already a distinguished 
economist, who introduced me as a brother economist to 
R. H. Hutton, the editor of the Spectator, for which 

for a time I wrote reviews of books on economics. 

# # # # # 

My first review in the Spectator was on a book by 
H. Dunning Macleod, " demolishing for good " John 
Stuart Mill's economic fallacies ! It brought me a letter 
from the dearest friend of my boyhood, Alexander 

5 



THIRTY YEARS 

Lonie, who was assistant to T. Spencer Baynes, 
editor of the then appearing ninth edition of the 
Encyclopedia Britannica. He reproached me roundly 
for a severity which, he said, showed I did not yet 
appreciate the labour of producing a book on any 
serious subject, and beseeching me to look out rather 
for the merit, than the weakness, of the authors I 
criticised. Alec Lonie died of consumption before he 
reached his thirtieth year, but he had written a short 
article on " Animism " in the Britannica which was 
regarded by competent judges as a masterpiece. I 
wrote a good many criticisms of books for the 
Spectator, and a great many more afterwards for 
Literature, when edited by Dr. Traill, but I never 
forgot Alec Lonie's humane admonition. 

# # # * # 

My decision to accept the Paris post was not a little 
influenced by the fact that an important statistical 
post in Egypt, for which I had been recommended by 
Dr. Farr, had been given to someone else on account 
of my youth and without reference to our respective 
qualifications, an unpardonable offence in the eyes of 
a young man of twenty-two not yet experienced in 

the ways of Governments. 

* # # # # 

Anyhow I came to France with joy. Here new ideas 
got a hearing, here all the leaders — the very institu- 
tions were young. The country was still a vast political 
Seminar — and I was enthusiastic about everything 
that resembled in freedom of discussion the Seminar 
in which my mind had learnt how to use its limbs. 

I spoke French fairly well, having passed a year in 
the College Jean-Bart at Dunkirk in 1867-8, 1 and any 

1 In 1912 I had the privilege of distributing the prizes and delivering 



LAUNCHED IN PARIS 

little diffidence I still had was soon lost in the intel- 
lectual omniscience The 'Times correspondents in those 
days affected to possess and were credited with 
possessing whether they possessed it or not. 

Young as I was I soon got into touch with the 
problems which were agitating France. 

With a sort of feverish desire to miss nothing, I 
went off almost daily to Versailles to listen to the 
debates in parliament, although my department was 
rather the economic, commercial, and financial side 
of things in France than her politics. 

Dr. Farr had given me letters of introduction to all 
the great French economists of that time — Levasseur, 
Michel Chevalier, Maurice Block, Joseph Gamier, 
Wolowski, etc. Of all these distinguished men I made 
the acquaintance except Wolowski, who was then 
already on his death-bed. 

# * * * # 

M. Levasseur gave me an appointment for 7.45 in 
the morning. This distinguished economist was an 
indefatigable, nay, inexorable worker, and allowed no 
one to disturb him after 8.30 a.m., when he began his 
daily toil in earnest. Professor Levasseur confined 

the annual oration at the famous old college. I chose as the subject 
" Moral education in school," one of the greatest problems of modern 
France. 

Two of my fellow pupils of the " Jean-Bart " were the brothers Furby. 
Alcide died a few years ago, but the other brother, Charles, is now Avocat- 
Giniral of the Court of Cassation. We met again some thirty years ago 
through journalism, which he abandoned like myself for the law. Furby 
pere had been a political refugee in Edinburgh under the Empire. Though 
amnestied he remained in Scotland, and was French tutor to the Duke of 
Edinburgh in his time. Another Jean-Bartois is Dr. Dundas Grant, the 
well-known laryngologist. Furby, Grant and I meet from time to time 
and talk of old days as " old boys " are wont to do. 

Dunkirk is also the headquarters of an active branch of the F.I.G., under 
the active and sympathetic chairmanship of Juge de Paix Lebel (seep. 301). 



THIRTY YEARS 

his conversation with me to some great atlas, I think 
it was, on which he was engaged, and when the clock 
struck eight he rose, shook hands and told me he 
would always be glad to see me at the same hour. I 
often saw this exceedingly busy man again, but only 
at evening parties, and even then he seemed to subject 
himself to time limits, such as, I imagine, five minutes 
for a member of the Academie francaise, three minutes 
for a fellow member of the Academy of Moral and 
Political Sciences ; for the rest, a scale of conversation 
of which he carefully took charge to prevent any over- 
stepping of a precise and well-considered proportion, 
descending to a courtly shake of the hand to the 

simple man in the street. 

* * # # * 

Michel Chevalier received me at his house in the 
Avenue du Bois de Boulogne, where his distinguished 
son-in-law, Professor Paul Leroy-Beaulieu, still lives, 
within the heures ouvrables it is true, but, like Professor 
Levasseur, he gave me a rapid expose of his views on 
certain current matters economic, and then rising, 
shook hands. He at any rate returned my call, and 
I called on him again to obtain his views on some 
pending measure, but he was too full of his views on 
something else to give me any enlightenment on any 
topic of any interest to The Times. 

With this first experience of eminent Frenchmen I 
was disappointed, and it was some time before I 
presented another letter of introduction. One day, 
however, I received from my late friend, Mr. Richard 
Heath, who was then writing his life of Edgar Quinet, 
a letter to Professor Garcin de Tassy, the Oriental 
scholar, a fine old gentleman with the grand manners 



LAUNCHED IN PARIS 

of an expiring age, who was not an economist, not 
even an economist of time or courtesy. He invited 
me d Vanglaise to dinner, and I accepted his abundant 
hospitality as often as my journalist duties per- 
mitted. 

<JF ^P -Jf -Jr "Jr 

Emboldened by this result, which had brought me 
into contact with a number of interesting Frenchmen, 
I presented another of Dr. Farr's letters. 

This was to Professor Gamier, a handsome old man 
with a magnificent head of grey hair, who was the 
hon. secretary of the " Societe d'Economie politique." 
He invited me to one of its monthly dinners that 
autumn. 

At this dinner I made the acquaintance of a Deputy 
who, being the son of a Scotsman, admitted me at 
once to his intimacy. " Cela se fait toujours entre 
Ecossais ! " The father, as a young Glasgow engineer, 
had been sent in the early years of the century by 
" Iron Manby," President of the Society of Engineers, 
to teach the engineers of the Creuzot works how to 
cast large blocks of iron for the construction of bridges. 
After completing his engagement, like a true Scotsman 
he looked around him to see in what way he could take 
advantage of his environment, and with the co-opera- 
tion of M. Dosne, M. Thiers' father-in-law, of M. Thiers 
himself, of M. Barante, M. Fould and others, he founded 
the Charenton Ironworks. Meanwhile he observed the 
great progress of gas-lighting, which had been adopted 
with commercial success in North Britain, and deter- 
mined to give it a trial in Paris. Thus it was that 
in the thirties the enterprising owner of a cafe on the 
Boulevard Poissonniere, the Cafe des Boulevards, 
allowed our Scotsman to instal a small gas-generating 

9 



THIRTY YEARS 

plant in its basement. Hundreds of strollers, attracted 

by what then seemed intense brilliancy compared with 

the poor old colza-oil lamps, crowded into the cafe. 

Bref, capitalists were invited to join in the venture, 

and the Gas Company of Paris was founded with the 

enterprising Scotsman at its head. It flourished 

and he became a very rich man. Some years later 

he married a young French lady, daughter of M. 

Cazenave, a judge of the Court of Cassation, and son 

of one of the few members of the Convention who 

voted against the execution of Louis XVI. The two 

children of the marriage were left orphans while very 

young, and were brought up by guardians. The elder 

one, a daughter, married M. Pelouze, the scientific 

chemist of the company ; the other child was Daniel 

Wilson, my new friend. 

* * # # # 

Whatever the sins of Daniel Wilson — and whether 
he was a scapegoat, the victim of the conspiracy 
against his father-in-law, M. Grevy, or not — he was 
always a good friend to me, and I was certainly far 
too poor and too insignificant to make it worth his 
while to cultivate me for any object but the purest 
of friendship. I never saw but one fault in him — it 
was that he was often obliging to people who did not , 
deserve his kindness. Wilson in 1876, when I first 
made his acquaintance, was one of the most promising 
men in France, comparatively rich, a dispassionate 
and effective business-like speaker, and an inde- 
fatigable worker. M. Grevy singled him out for his 
particular affection. " Mon petit Daniel," as he called 
him, afterwards married Mile. Grevy. I was at the 
wedding as one of Wilson's friends. This friendship 
with Wilson brought me into close contact with the 

10 



LAUNCHED IN PARIS 

Grevy family, and for years I was a frequent guest 
at the Thursday lunches, to which the President was 
in the habit of inviting his more intimate political 
friends. It was at these lunches that I laid the 
foundation of those political associations which after- 
wards enabled me to secure support for the Entente, 

where it might otherwise have been difficult. 

# # # * * 

I cannot pass over the name of Mme. Pelouze, 
Wilson's sister, without mentioning the delicate 
charm, the tact, and political insight of a lady who 
was truly one of the grandes dames of the Republic. 
At Tours, in the early days, she had been the rallying 
point of the Grevy party against the Gambettists. It 
was she who had taken Daniel to task over his 
extravagant and wild life as a young richard towards 
the end of the Empire, who had bought the beautiful 
palace of Chenonceaux on the Indre, had captured the 
constituency of Loches and sent her brother to Paris 
as its Deputy. No habitue of the gatherings under the 
dim-red light in her large, cosy smoking-room, with 
the clever men and women she collected round her, 
can pass the old place at 17, rue de l'Universite 
without a pang of sadness in his recollection of the 
sweet woman who was afterwards financially ruined, 
whose exquisite Chenonceaux was sold by the mort- 
gagees, and who died, after a long illness, exiled from 
Paris to the south of France, uncared for except by a 
small number of those who will never think of her 
without gratitude for having had the privilege of 
knowing her. 

# # # # # 

Nor can I speak of Mme. Pelouze without thinking 
of the grande dame on the other side, — for the Grevy 

11 



THIRTY YEARS 

party and Gambetta's party soon came to be the more 
or less opposing sections in Republican destinies — , of 
Mme. Edmond Adam, nee Juliette Lamber, a very 
different kind of woman from Mme. Pelouze, an 
authoress of great distinction, a woman of an excep- 
tionally brilliant intellect, who influenced all who 
approached her and who was the Egeria of half the 
great men of her time in France. For years with her 
husband, and, after M. Adam's death in 1877, alone, 
she was Gambetta's sincere and constant adviser and 
friend. In 1880, as I remember her, fair and forty, 
she was an extremely handsome and commanding 
personality, who, at the functions she graced with her 
presence, was always the centre of attraction. Her 
mind, along with its feminine power of divination, 
had certain masculine qualities which made men 
solicit her opinions and treat them with a consideration 
I have never seen in any other case to such a degree. 
Her vitality was so absorbed in the affairs of France 
that she had neither time nor energy for the frivolities 
and flirtations of many clever women. But I am 
speaking of her as if she were no longer among us. 
Far from having abandoned the things of this world, 
she is still mentally as brilliant and enthusiastic as 
ever for the causes she deems good. I met her again 
in 1908 at Prague, busy with her ever-green passion 
for the reunion of the Slav races as a bulwark, if 
I understand her aright, against the spread of 
Germanism ! I fear this passes my comprehension. 

*■«. Jfc Jfr ■& 

•TC *5T* TV" W 

Amid all these new friends and acquaintances, 
Blowitz stands out in high relief among my earlier 
French recollections, and though he is no longer even 
known by name to a younger generation, there are 

12 



LAUNCHED IN PARIS 

many of an older one who knew Blowitz personally, 
and even for them, besides those who read his articles, 
his personality has always remained interestingly 
obscure. His memoirs are no real clue to the man, 
and no one who had any real affection for Blowitz 
would do him the injustice of disguising his faults, 
which were neither paltry nor sordid, but as much a 
part of his interesting and picturesque personality as 
his qualities. 

In stature he was short, on account of the abnormal 
shortness of his legs. His head was not out of pro- 
portion to his trunk, and he looked well-proportioned 
when seated. When I first knew him, he was obliged 
to have a desk with a bay to accommodate his person 
and write with ease. A sturdy moustache and side 
whiskers, which he wore brushed outwards, a bald 
head and the hands of a giant completed the massive 
outline of a form which mere touches of expression 
from the caricaturist sufficed to make comic. Even 
a comical situation was enough, as in Sir F. 
Gould's famous cartoon in the Westminster Gazette 
of December 6, 1899, without the slightest deflection 
from nature. His manner had a certain distinction. 
His keen, observant glance and swarthy Oriental 
repose of features were so interesting that no one 
thought of the almost grotesque disproportion of 
his limbs. 

His mode of thought was almost as eccentric as his 
body. He had the vanity, generosity, insight and 
cleverness absolute of the Semite. Yet he did not see 
the futility of proclaiming himself and all his charac- 
teristics Slavonic. He was born in Bohemia, at a 
place a few miles from Pilsen, called Biovics, and 
according to his own account his family name was 

13 



THIRTY YEARS 

Opper. This resembled Oppert too much to deceive 
the most willing of believers. I had frequent occasions 
to see how easy it was to deceive this master of 
practical psychology when his personal vanity or 
preconceived ideas were concerned. 

.v. .u. -y. Jj. «m. 

All this did not prevent Blowitz from being one of 
the survivals of a period of great men — a period which 
produced Darwins, Herbert Spencers, Disraelis, Glad- 
stones, Bismarcks, Gambettas and a galaxy of genius, 
the like of which has since then had no equals. 

It was at that time customary to call Emile de 
Girardin : le roi des journalistes. Blowitz was next 
in succession, and called, without exaggeration, le 
prince des journalistes. Open The Times at any date 
down to the end of the eighties, and you will see that 
he gave his opinions en prince as his own, and that his 
opinions were discussed as original sources of know- 
ledge. With the rise of the new democracy and the 
disappearance of the old " governing " personalities, 
his influence waned. 

W* flF tt tt tF 

In his palmy days, those of M. Thiers, the Due 
Decazes, Leon Say, Jules Simon, Dufaure, Duclerc, 
de Marcere, he wrote as if he belonged to the Roman 
Catholic, though more or less liberal, upper class of 
France, as the approved aristocratic critic of the 
reforms which were paving the way for a new era. 
Those were the days of journalists like John Lemoinne 
and J. J. Weiss, whose names stood for ideas, i.e., 
before the days of sensationalism and a new order of 
things in which men like these have no place. Blowitz 
was one of them. 

His judgments, however, when not based on 

H 



LAUNCHED IN PARIS 

immediate contact with human character, were 
generally warped and unsound. He loved to envelop 
his descriptions in mystery, and often reminded one 
more of the fantastic combinations of the Arabian 
Nights than of the sober, unromantic situations of the 
West. The story he tells in his Memoirs of how he 
got the Berlin Treaty is one of these fantastic stories. 
He told it, no doubt, to cover the responsibility of 
M. Waddington, the French delegate, who is believed 
to have given him the text in return for many kind 
services Blowitz had rendered to him, if not for pure 
friendship's sake. At the time it was currently stated 
that the culprit was Disraeli, who gave him the text 
as a present to his old friend The Times, but I made 
Waddington's acquaintance through Blowitz, and 
knew they were on terms of considerable intimacy. 
It is not of much importance now where Blowitz 
obtained the treaty and possibly, as I know from 
experience, he had only the merit of being the corre- 
spondent of The Times. I obtained the terms of the 
Brussels " General Act on the Slave Trade," for 
which there was almost as keen a scramble, and as 
its fragments were adopted translated them, and 
sent the whole text to The Times forty-eight hours 
before it was signed, and then telegraphed permission 
to publish it. No other paper had it. Any other 
discreet correspondent of The Times would have been 
equally able to get it first, as I did. 

•T? TT tF "H* TT 

Blowitz' ability was that of putting facts together 
and making a good consecutive story. This he could 
do with safety, because he was familiar with the known 
facts in every case. All he needed, as a rule, was a 
link. When he had this, his story was ready. 

15 



THIRTY YEARS 

He asked no questions. This, sometimes, brought 
him into conflict with eminent persons whose opinions 
he recorded, as I perceived more than once. 

One day when I was lunching at his house in the 
Rue Tilsitt, I found Nubar Pasha was among the 
guests. Madame de Blowitz whispered to me : C'est 
un dejeuner d'affaires. Nubar aura la parole ; ne 
l'interrompez pas." I suppose the other guests were 
similarly warned, but barely a word throughout the 
lunch did Nubar say. Blowitz probed the dusky, 
clever-looking Oriental (he was an Armenian), duskier 
than and as clever as himself, on his Egyptian policy, 
sent out his feelers groping round Nubar's faint 
protesting movements. A nod here, a shake of the 
head there, an occasional glance of his eyes, a little 
contraction of the forehead, a clearing of his throat 
that came to nothing, a furtive glance round the table 
were all Blowitz had to work upon. Not a word said 
Nubar, except to ask Madame de Blowitz for news of 
her nephew, Stephane Lausanne, and of her niece, or 
whether she had been to some concert. My neighbour 
whispered, " Se taire pour ecouter ce grand causeur ! " 
But Blowitz talked incessantly, giving Nubar most 
interesting details on current affairs. My neighbour 
observed sarcastically that Blowitz had wasted his 
time and a good lunch. He was wrong. I drove 
with Blowitz to The Times office, and he was now as 
taciturn as his guest had been. " I must digest all 
that he has told me," he said quite seriously. It 
sounded like an upside-down commentary on what I 
had just been witnessing. The next day The Times 
contained a long article by Blowitz on Egyptian 
affairs, the source of which was unmistakable. A day 
later I heard the angry voice of Nubar in Blowitz' 

16 



LAUNCHED IN PARIS 

room at the office expostulating. " But," said 
Blowitz, " the question is whether it is true or not 
true. Is it not true ? " Nubar had to admit that 
every word was true. They separated friends, 
Blowitz having convinced Nubar that his indiscretion 
had rendered Nubar an immense service. He had 
added, he afterwards told me with a sly twinkle in 
his eye, that he had no objection to Nubar's disavowing 
the article. 

Sometimes he was disavowed, as by Bismarck and 
by Gambetta, but nobody paid much heed to dis- 
avowals. A disavowal merely gave the interviewed 
person the benefit of the article without the 
responsibility. 

The famous article on Gambetta's policy suggested 
its source as that on Nubar's policy had done. 
Blowitz had come back in the same railway com- 
partment with Gambetta from Versailles where the 
Chambers then sat, and taken part in a general con- 
versation with other passengers. The Versailles-Paris 
parliamentary train in those days served the purpose 
of a club where men talked over matters of public 
policy and parliamentary strategy pretty freely. 
Mrs. Emily Crawford, correspondent of the Daily 
News, was authorized by Gambetta to disclaim the 
implied origin of the article, but nobody could deny 
the accuracy of the views Blowitz had attributed to 
Gambetta. His power lay, as I have said, in his 
intimate knowledge of foreign affairs, and his personal 

acquaintance with the men who directed them. 
# # # # # 

He was also singularly aided by an excellent 
memory. 
t.y. 17 c 



THIRTY YEARS 

A distinguished British politician and author, 
speaking recently of Blowitz, told me Delane had 
given him as an instance of Blowitz' extraordinary- 
memory, his having at a pinch written out from 
memory a long speech of Gambetta's. He thought 
it would have been simple to ask Gambetta for it. 
He was mistaken. In the first place, Gambetta could 
not have given it to him, and Blowitz' memory, 
provided nothing intervened, accounted for the 
rest. 

Blowitz spoke with a rolling Slavonic intonation 
French, German, Italian and Spanish. His English 
had been acquired in later life and was execrable. 
Among the difficulties he could not overcome was the 
difference between " How do you do ? " and " Good- 
bye." He sometimes combined them, saluting his 
friends in the same breath with " Good-bye, How do 
you do ! " 



Blowitz had the adventurer's love of the wealthy and 
powerful. In him, poverty or failure excited no pity, 
and one who afforded him no copy was a " nobody," 
the lowest rank to which a man could descend. A 
criminal on a large scale excited Blowitz' imagination 
and he dwelt with an almost friendly interest on 
rascality that amounted to genius. In those days 
Blowitz was a journalist, and nothing but a journalist, 
devoted to The Times body and soul, and ready to 
sacrifice his very life to his professional duty. 

He was as different from the sentimental Gambetta 
as any man could be. Gambetta hated Blowitz as 
a hanger-on and sycophant, and Blowitz despised 
Gambetta as an unpractical political simpleton. 

18 



LAUNCHED IN PARIS 

Gambetta's organ, the Republique francaise, never 
lost an opportunity of saying unflattering things about 
the great journalist. On one occasion it published a 
more than usually bitter article about M. Oppert de 
Blowitz, a converted Jew, a naturalised Frenchman, 
enjoying the hospitality of France, and betraying the 
country which had been kind to him to a foreign 
newspaper, etc. Letters poured in from all sides 
expressing the indignation of the writers at this 
virulent attack. Blowitz piled them up as they 
arrived, and put a weight on the top. 

He read a couple of them. One was from Hely 
Bowes, correspondent of the Standard, a really good 
fellow whom his friends all loved. Blowitz handed it 
to me. It was a kind, well-meant letter, but it 
irritated Blowitz, and he " chucked " the whole lot 
unread into the waste-paper basket. " Meme Bowes 
ne peut cacher sa joie. Leurs condoleances sont aussi 
ineptes qu'elles sont impertinentes. S'il ne leur etait 
pas doux de me patroner, ils auraient feint de ne 
1' avoir pas lu." 



Shortly afterwards Lord Lytton came to Paris. I 
made his acquaintance through my friend, Sir 
Frederick Pollock. He was very inquisitive about 
Blowitz, whom he had seen but not yet met. " He looks 
an ugly little mongrel," he observed. " I suppose the 
inner man is much like the outer one." He seemed 
unfriendly to the Prince des Journalistes. Blowitz, 
however, soon conquered the Bohemian ambassador. 
The next time we met was at a British Chamber of 
Commerce banquet. Lord Lytton, who was the 
kindest and most jovial of ambassadors, was walking 

19 c 2 



THIRTY YEARS 

up and down a side room with his arm embracing 
Blowitz' ample torso. 

# * # # # 

Madame de Blowitz was a lady of great distinction, 
and there was nobody who was not pleased to accept 
her invitations. She did the honours of her household 
like a true Provencal woman, a grande dame to the 
manner born. She was the only woman, however, 
who ever mistook me for my father. My first-born 
had just made its appearance on the human stage. 
She knew me quite well, but her husband introduced 
me as " Monsieur Barclay pere." She turned to me 
and to my astonishment said, " Monsieur, je vous 
felicite de votre fils qui d'ailleurs vous ressemble 
beaucoup, beaucoup." 

In his later years, when his sight failed him, Blowitz 
grew suspicious of everybody ; I seemed to be one of 
the few exceptions. Once a week at least, he would 
inquire if I were going to some function, because he 
wished to sit next me. With his declining health, 
his Oriental imagination ran riot. Dreams became 
realities, and with his fading sight, he discerned 
enchantments and romance more than ever. 
# # # * # 

Laurence Oliphant, that most unaccountable of 
beings, in ordinary intercourse a " visionary cynic " 
as somebody called him, told me he considered his 
discovery of Blowitz the one redeeming incident of 
a wasted life. When he (Oliphant) was Times 
correspondent, he had wanted an ingenious fellow 
who would " se glisser dans les milieux politiques," 
and bring him gossip. Some unconscious foresight 
had prompted him to go and ask Thiers to recommend 

20 



LAUNCHED IN PARIS 

him a man. Thiers seemed to expect the inquiry. 
" I was just going to send a man who was here a few 
minutes ago with a letter of introduction to you," 
said the President. " He is an adventurer in Paris, 
but well known at Marseilles, whence he has just 
turned up with a letter of warm commendation from 
friends of mine there. You can trust him." It was 
providential. 

So, this man, said Oliphant, born in Bohemia, of 
God-only-knew what origin, had left Marseilles, where 
he had lived for many years as a teacher, with the idea 
of starting a new life in Paris, and walked straight, as 
it were, into The Times office, and became the greatest 
journalist of his time. What premonition had made 
him break up his home at Marseilles, where he was 
married to a charming woman of sufficient means 
to ensure comfort, and at forty years of age start on 
a new career ! It was like Joan of Arc ! 



Blowitz told me two stories which do not figure in 
his Memoirs, and which are too good to be forgotten. 
The one was of M. Thiers, by whom Blowitz was 
frequently invited to his presidential functions. On 
one occasion when he was invited to the Presidency, 
there were a number of Prefets dining with him. 
Thiers wished to know them all personally in order 
to judge of their abilities so far as a few minutes 
conversation would permit. It was at an anxious 
time. The President looked very grave, said practi- 
cally nothing and ate less. Blowitz after dinner 
approached him to ask if there was any discomforting 
news. " Rien du tout," answered M. Thiers. " But 
you looked so preoccupied, M. le President, during 

21 



THIRTY YEARS 

the dinner that I feared there might be some trouble." 
" Je n'etais preoccupe, mon ami, que de mes prefets. 
Je les regardais manger. Pour etre bon prefet, il faut 
avoir la digestion facile. II y en a qui deviennent 
rouges comme des ecrevisses. Cela n'est pas bon pour 
la Republique." And he went on seriously explaining 
to Blowitz that a good prefect must be moderate in his 
libations, have a good digestion, weigh his words and 
rise from the table as self-possessed as when he sat 
down. 

The other story was of Lord Lyons. After a late 
debate in the Chamber, Thiers had handed in his 
resignation, and Blowitz, who, probably alone of 
journalists, knew of M. Thiers' decision, had sent a 
long telegram to The Times about the inauspicious, 
but as he believed, final decision. There was a 
reception at some Embassy that evening. Blowitz 
was necessarily late, and as he ascended the staircase, 
he met Lord Lyons coming down. " Vous savez que 
Thiers est a l'eau," whispered Blowitz. " Repechez- 
le," murmured back Lord Lyons. Blowitz drove 
immediately to the Presidency and found that the 
resignation was withdrawn. His wire to London 
arrived just in time to prevent a gaffe, which would 
have been due to his superior knowledge ! 

After a few years I resigned my post on The Times, 
though with Blowitz I continued on terms of intimate 
friendship to the end of his life. From him shortly 
before his death I received the following touching 
letter in reply to one of mine regretting that I had 
not been asked to join in a testimonial to him, 
thanking me for a friendship which had been a greater 
pleasure to me than it could possibly have been of 
service to him : — 

22 



LAUNCHED IN PARIS 

" 2 Rue Greuze. io Jan., 1903. 
" My very dear Friend, — I presume that you must have 
returned from England and that I can write you to your 
address in Paris in reply to your very kind and friendly letter 
of December 23. Be sure that I appreciate very highly your 
good feelings towards myself and that I remember with a 
grateful sense the powerful and successful assistance which I 
have received from you and which has so largely contributed 
to the quite unexpected greatness of my success. The 
organisers of the token offered to me by my colleagues have 
exclusively invited acting correspondents and I, since, really 
regret that your name does not figure on the remarkable work 
of art which has been offered to me, and which I hope to 
be able to show you as soon as you will find time to call at the 
rue Greuze, where you are sure it will give me great pleasure 
to see you." 

In his palmy days people credited Blowitz with 
making large profits besides his salary. He was 
vendu to everybody who could make use of The Times . 
That, when he died, his fortune was found to be quite 
insignificant silenced his detractors, as the same fact 
had silenced the detractors of Gambetta. Men 
endowed with public spirit have little time to make 
fortunes. Enthusiasts give or lose what they have, but 
calumny never tires of whispering the contrary till the 
answer comes from its victim's grave. 



23 



CHAPTER II 

REPUBLICAN SALAD DAYS AND BISMARCK 

I grew up with the Republic. 
On May 9, 1876, when I invaded the gay city, 
the Republic was still barely out of its infancy. 
Its parliamentary baptism, fifteen months earlier 
(January 30, 1875), when the adoption of the title of 
President of the Republic was the first parliamentary 
recognition of the existence of the Republic as the 
established form of government, had not been an 
unqualified victory for the Republicans. Owing to 
dissensions among their opponents, then the majority, 
it was carried by one vote, by 354 votes against 353 ! 
Marshal MacMahon had been appointed the previous 
year (March 19, 1874) for a period of seven years by 
an isolated legislative enactment. A section of his sup- 
porters now voted for the adoption of the Septennate 
as a principle, vaguely hoping that it would facilitate 
the election of the Due d'Aumale, on whom they relied 
as a popular future President to lead France by 
gentle suasion back to her old royalist allegiance. 

The electors, however, showed no particular desire to 
return to any of the old allegiances, and in February, 
1876, they had returned a Republican majority of 360 
against a minority of 170, made up of a composite 
opposition, with hostility to the Republic as their only 
common denominator. The honest but politically 
unpractical Marshal tried, in spite of this Republican 
victory, to rely for government on the support of this 
heterogeneous minority. 

24 



REPUBLICAN SALAD DAYS 

When I began to frequent the meetings of the 
French parliament and watch the still anxious game 
of Republican politics, the venerable and respected 
M. Dufaure was Prime Minister and the Due Decazes 
Minister for Foreign Affairs. With the Due, Blowitz, 
who had already risen to a towering position in 
journalism, was on familiar terms. 

•IT 'Jp "lr W *n* 

I have never pinned my faith to the story of the 
Franco-German crisis of 1875 with the conviction 
of a sincere believer. This does not apply to 
Blowitz's share in denouncing it. He told me what 
happened just as it has since been recorded in his 
" Memoirs," except that in his memoirs he does not 
mention that Prince Hohenlohe * was also behind him. 

It was customary in those days when diplomatists 
carried on their warfare with the assistance of the 
foreign correspondents of leading newspapers, 
especially those of London, to date " tendential " 
communications from any but the real place of origin. 
Thus Blowitz would date a note furnished by Decazes 
from Rome, whence some friend of his, he would allege, 
who was inclose connection with diplomacy had written 
to him explanations of such or such an incident ; or 
it would be that the text of such or such a document 
had been sent him from Vienna. As identical com- 
munications are sent out to the ambassadors, respon- 
sibility for indiscretion was often fixed on the wrong 
man by a public who were not, like the diplomatic 
people themselves, able to detect the supercherie. 

The story of the crisis arose out of the announce- 
ment that an addition of some 140,000 men was to be 

1 Prince Hohenlohe succeeded Count v. Arnim as German Ambassador to 
France in May, 1874. 

25 



THIRTY YEARS 

made to the French army under the new law for its 
reorganisation. 

The French ambassador at Berlin, the Vicomte de 
Gontaut-Biron, was an ardent Roman Catholic and 
reactionary who, however fascinating his personal 
charm may have been — and it was no doubt con- 
siderable, seeing that he was a great favourite at 
the Berlin Court — excited, perhaps, the jealousy of 
the " iron " Chancellor. The Prince could not stand 
the well-groomed, suave, gay Frenchman and dis- 
trusted the clerical reaction with which the ambassador 
was associated. The election of Marshal MacMahon 
to the Presidency, the increase of the army, the 
militant tone of the French press, and the possibility 
of a new coup d'etat, for which a foreign war might be 
a pretext, made Germany suspicious. M. de Gontaut- 
Biron appears to have had little intercourse with 
the responsible heads of the administration, and to 
have consorted chiefly with the court circle and 
the Prussian aristocracy who fluttered around it. 
The French ambassador's famous letter which had 
caused the alarm in France and which Blowitz saw, 
stated that a German diplomatist whom he had met 
at the British Embassy, Herr von Radowitz, had told 
him that Count von Moltke, who had great influence 
over the Emperor, had proved to His Majesty the 
necessity of another and immediate war with France. 
The German armies were to dash over the frontier 
to Paris, exact a ransom of ten milliards spread over 
twenty years, without power of anticipation, and keep 
garrisons in France till it was paid. Why Radowitz, 
who was one of Bismarck's men of confidence, should 
have told Gontaut-Biron this wild story is inexplicable, 
unless Bismarck used him to stop the progress of a 

26 



REPUBLICAN SALAD DAYS 

dangerous idea. The incident in any case led to 
Blowitz' article in The Times of May 4 revealing and 
denouncing the project, to Gortchakoff publishing his 
famous telegram of May 10 claiming to have "assured" 
the peace of Europe, and to Queen Victoria writing 
an autograph letter to the Emperor William begging 
him to desist from the sinister intentions he was 
supposed to entertain. 

General Schurz, on whom I called with Mr. Carnegie 
one evening in New York during the winter of 1903-4, 
telling us of his meeting with Bismarck at Berlin 
shortly after the incident, said it was on that occasion 
that the Prince used his now famous expression 
" Warum ? Wir sind satt." 

That Bismarck himself, however, had some appre- 
hension about the consequences of the violent anti- 
German utterances, in which some French reactionary 
politicians and Bishops x had indulged, is evident from 
Bismarck's circular of January, 1874, to the German 
representatives abroad. " Germany," he wrote, " is 
sincerely desirous to live at peace with France ; but 
should a collision become manifestly inevitable, 
Germany will not be able to reconcile it with her 
conscience, or with her duty to her people, to await 
the moment that might appear most favourable to 
France." About the same time he wrote to Count 
von Armin, the German ambassador to Paris : " I am 
convinced we cannot leave Italy without help, should 
she be attacked by France without reason or for 
reasons that also affect our interests." 2 

Nor perhaps would the Franco-German war scare 

1 The Bishops of Nancy, Anger and Nimes were conspicuous as the chief 
culprits in this pastoral incitement to revenge. 

2 Compare Charles Lowe, "Prince Bismarck." London, 1885, pp. 53 
et seq. 

27 



THIRTY YEARS 

of 1875 have acquired the diplomatic importance it un- 
questionably attained, had not Germany at the same 
time made such a fuss over some Belgian incidents 
which her Government seemed to be keeping alive 
for a possible emergency. The Prussian guarantee 
of Belgium's neutralisation she seemed to contem- 
plate regarding as in abeyance in reference to any 
grievance of her own requiring redress. This involved 
the delicate question of the effect of a joint guarantee 
of neutrality. Where one of the guarantors had a 
casus belli against the guaranteed State, what would 
be the position of the other guaranteeing States ? 
Would they be bound to intervene for its protection 
or would they be entitled to say their duty of 
intervention only came into effect if a question of 
annexation of territory arose ? Belgians, I may 
mention by the way, no longer trust the fate of 
their independence to the treaty guaranteeing it, 
and wisely so. 

It must not, however, be forgotten that Bismarck 
obviously had in view, at a time when racial and 
language questions dominated the political ideals of 
European statesmen, the creation of a racially united 
Germany, just as the ideal of Cavour and his suc- 
cessors had been that of a racially united Italy. That 
Holstein and Alsace, German-speaking provinces, 
should be under foreign dominion was as great a 
grievance to German statesmen as that Venice and 
Verona should be under German sway was to Italian 
statesmen. That Bismarck should have dreamt of 
adding to the alien population of his united German 
state was inconsistent with a policy which commended 
itself as reasonable and desirable to those who were 
necessary to its realisation. Besides, he had already 

28 



REPUBLICAN SALAD DAYS 

reason to regret having been led by military con- 
siderations to overstep this principle in annexing 
portions of Danish and Lorraine territory. 

The alarm died away, and Gortchakoff and the 
Czar got the credit of having saved France, a circum- 
stance which vexed Bismarck, who obviously had not 
anticipated that his busy and loquacious Russian 
confrere would get the reputation of having " dished " 
him, while his own object had been to " dish " Moltke. 



The Orleans princes were the heirs-expectant of the 
Republic at this period. M. Buffet, the Prime 
Minister, who had been a rallie to the Empire Liberal, 
was now the minister under whom the Republic had 
become the acknowledged form of government in 
spite of his efforts to prevent it from becoming a 
permanent regime. The Orleans princes played the 
part of the modest, retiring grands seigneurs who had 
to be dragged into a publicity they shunned. The 
Comte de Paris was to be asked like Caesar to don the 
crown which he would modestly but sternly decline, 
and then he was to be acclaimed " king " in spite of 
himself. Modestly the Orleans princes gave out that 
they were about to translate the remains of the exiled 
members of their family from England to the family 
tomb at Dreux, and with touching dignity they for- 
bade all public manifestations in their honour. In 
short, they remained true to the legend of the un- 
obtrusive " citizen King," from whom they were 
descended. And so it happened in June, 1876, 
shortly after my arrival in Paris, that the remains of 
Louis Philippe, Queen Marie Amelie, the Duchesse 
d'Orleans, the Duchesse d'Aumale, the Prince de 

29 



THIRTY YEARS 

Conde, and five of the royal children who had died in 
England were brought back to France under the 
charge of the Comte de Paris, the grandson of Louis 
Philippe and the head of the family. I was present 
at the interment in the family mausoleum at Dreux, 
and there I had the almost unique privilege of seeing 
together the Comte and Comtesse de Paris, the Due 
and Duchesse de Montpensier, the Prince and Princesse 
de Joinville, the Due d'Aumale, the Due de Nemours, 
the Comte de Flandres, the Due de Chartres, and the 
Duke and Duchess of Saxe-Coburg. I remember 
being struck by the family resemblance of the men to 
each other, down even to their all wearing their 
trousers short. Blowitz had put me up to this among 
a few parting words of advice. " The man," he 
said, " who says he fears he can't do a thing well, 
generally can. The self-confident one is more likely 
to fail." I had told him I had never tried 
descriptive writing. " By the bye," he added, " all 
the Orleanist Princes wear their trousers short ; 
you will be able to pick them out by that." 

" Why ? " 

" Oh, just a family trait ; perhaps because they 
are too indolent to do anything more complicated." 

The Princes, certainly, all looked conventional and 
uninteresting, and not one had the magnetic eye 
which belongs to leaders of men. I have the article 
I wrote on the event before me while I write now. 
I see that I stated that the Orleans princes had 
recently sold most of their property in England and 
were now making their homes once more in their 
native country. But modest and becoming as were 
the attendant circumstances, the ceremony excited 
little or no interest even among the, inhabitants of 

3° 



REPUBLICAN SALAD DAYS 

Dreux. The Orleanist legend, if there ever had been 
one, was dead. 

" Nobody," I remarked, " can have witnessed the ceremony 
without being struck by the contrast it presented to the return 
of Napoleon's remains from St. Helena. The latter was brought 
back with all imaginable pomp to the capital which had 
exulted over his triumphs, the many years during which they 
had lain in a foreign soil having only effaced the recollection 
of his faults and rekindled the admiration of his achievements. 
Louis Philippe's ashes, after a still more prolonged exile, are 
brought over by his family like those of a private individual 
and interred not at St. Denis, or in the capital of the nation over 
which he reigned, but in an obscure Norman town, escorted 
only by his descendants and amid the mere curiosity or 
positive apathy of the population along the route." x 

M. Dufaure, the moderate Liberal, after the 
February election, had displaced the reactionary 
M. Buffet, and at the end of the year the frankly 
Republican M. Jules Simon succeeded M. Dufaure. 

*JP •¥? w «Jp 4fi* 

I met M. Buffet only once to have any conversa- 
tion of moment with him. It was, I think, at the 
funeral of M. Magnard, of the Figaro. He was 
a quiet, modest sort of man, tall for a Frenchman, 
with a clumsy stoop rather than a hump-back. I 
remember he was not in the customary deep black, 
but wore a chestnut-coloured suit, and, lagging 
behind to be less conspicuous, everybody noticed him. 
As he was alone, I had a chance of talking with him ; 
but he was not a communicative politician, and always 
brought me back from the indiscretions into which I 
wished to lead him to England and the then current 
question of the condition of Ireland, which he com- 
pared with Scotland — " also a Celtic country," he 
told me. I tried to get him back through Scotland 

1 The Times, June 10, 1876. 
31 



THIRTY YEARS 

to France, but he was just as tenacious about knowing 
why these two Celtic countries were so different, 
though of the same race, as I was to ascertain what 
he thought of an Anglo-French rapprochement in 
connection with the Treaty of Commerce negotiations. 
It was a dead-lock. 

# # * # # 

With Jules Simon I came to be on more familiar 
terms. When the divorce law was under discussion 
I remember his explaining to me why he, a Radical, 
was against it. Every marriage he told me had its 
mauvais jours. There were times, even years, during 
which the strain could be intolerable, during which 
husband and wife came near to hating each other, 
and causes of divorce, if the Bill was adopted, would 
abound. Yet that period passed over, and, when 
calmer years were reached, the couple would be 
grateful to the law which had prevented them from 
bursting the matrimonial bond, breaking up the 
family, and losing the joint solace of an old age 
among their common children and grandchildren. 

" II ne faut jamais perdre l'espoir dans le manage. 
C'est les exigences qui le gatent." I need not say that 
the Divorce Bill was adopted in spite of his warnings. 

Jules Simon's real name was Jules Francois Simon 
Suisse. His father was a Protestant Lorrainer and 
his mother a Roman Catholic Bretonne, and he him- 
self looked very like a Jew. 

The Jules Simons lived in the very centre of the 
life of Paris, in a flat on the Place de la Madeleine. 
From their windows on the fifth floor of an old house, 
which is still standing, they looked out upon the 
seething and noisy traffic converging at that point 
from the Rue Royale, the Boulevard Malesherbes and 

32 



REPUBLICAN SALAD DAYS 

the Grand Boulevard. The ceiling of his flat was so 
low that a tall man could touch it without effort, and 
Jules Simon could take down his books from all the 
shelves without steps. His flat was lined with books. 
The place was simply a library in which he had his 
furniture. Mme. Simon was an unobtrusive little old 
lady who listened to her husband and their guests, and 
whose interest was more in persons than ideas. 

On the Tuesday evenings of February they did the 
" receiving " of the season. Then their small recep- 
tion-rooms were crowded with all the literary world 
of Paris, who climbed the five floors — for there were 
no lifts in those days — to do homage to the great man 
of letters. 

Georges Picot's " etude " on Jules Simon is a 
masterpiece of French epigrammatic writing : " Aux 
temps de silence, sa plume remplissait le discours. En 
pleine liberte, elle achevait ce que sa voix avait com- 
mence. Ses livres etaient des actes." I knew both 
Jules Simon and the author of this " etude." If 
contrasts interpret each other, Georges Picot was 
made to interpret Jules Simon. He was an ex- 
tremely handsome blond, tall with a generous nose 
and race stamped on his narrow head, long, delicate 
hands and nervous frame. While he looked the 
thorough-bred intellectual Gentile, Jules Simon almost 
looked as thorough-bred an intellectual Jew. 

Among the many distinguished persons I met at 
these receptions was Ernest Renan, a fat, placid man, 
who in appearam e was a cross between a German 
Boniface of my old university days and a French cure. 

Only once had I an opportunity of serious conver- 
sation with him. I wanted to " draw " him on the 

T.Y. 33 D 



THIRTY YEARS 

intellectual outlook which befitted a historian. I was 
arguing, at the time, that history was not a subject in 
itself, but an aspect of every subject, and that every 
branch of education and study should include its 
particular history. He vaguely agreed with me 
that the " verdicts " of history were not to be 
trusted except as evidence of the mental attitude of 
the age in which they were given. But I was so 
ultra-Renanian in those days that even Renan, I think, 
must have shuddered at such defiance of authority ! 

Dufaure, in the Marshal's eyes, was a mild politician 
and safe. Jules Simon was only a shade less mild, 
yet theoretically too advanced for the Marshal, and 
six months later came the famous seize mai of 1877, 
when he " dismissed " M. Jules Simon and his 
ministry and appointed a ministry composed entirely 
of reactionaries headed by the Due de Broglie. This, 
too, six months later he dismissed and tried a ministry 
of public officials, which lasted three weeks. Then he 
tried M. Dufaure again, and finally in January, 1879, 
in exasperation that he could not discover any 
political quadrature of the circle, resigned. 
***** 

I did not meet the Due de Broglie till many years 
after these exciting events, when he was among the 
guests at a dinner party at the house of my late friend 
M. Arthur Desjardins, a member of the Institut and 
" avocat-general a la Cour de Cassation." I was 
struck by his unsympathetic manner and rasping 
voice, and could quite understand what people meant 
when they said of him that he was a good speaker 
who drove the votes away. 



34 



REPUBLICAN SALAD DAYS 

V 

Anglo-French relations began now to shape them- 
selves. It was in this period of ardent political strife 
and intrigue, when the fate of the Republic itself still 
hung in the balance, that I had made the acquaintance 
of Jules Simon, and of Gambetta, whom I met for the 
first time in 1878, when the Sugar Conference was 
sitting in Paris, at a reception given by the then 
Minister of Commerce, M. Tesserenc de Bort. 

The grand, tribun had ceased to be the fou furieux 
Thiers had called him, and had become a moderate 
thinker in home affairs, an " opportunist " (I think he 
was the author of the term), and was on the way to 
adopting moderate views also in foreign affairs. He 
even forgave Thiers the epithet hurled after him and 
became a respectful friend of the old man, consulting 
him on all matters of moment and even conspiring for 
his re-election to the Presidency. Gambetta had also 
begun to entertain the idea that it was in the interest 
of France, amid her then internal problems and tur- 
moil, to cultivate the friendship of England, and con- 
ciliate English public opinion by showing that the 
new republican form of government resembled that 
of her island neighbour in the guarantees it offered 
to the free play of popular forces and the subordina- 
tion of the administration to the will of the electoral 
majority. In the following year (1877) the question 
of the renewal of the Anglo-French Treaty of Com- 
merce of i860, " denounced " by France for the year 
1878, would have to be dealt with, and this seemed 
to Gambetta an occasion which might be turned to 
profitable account. In any case it would need careful 
handling to avoid ill-feeling between the two countries 
if negotiations failed. 

35 ^2 



CHAPTER III 

ANTI-ENGLISH SYMPTOMS. GAMBETTA 

One day at lunch at Mme. Pelouze's I met M. Jules 
Lecesne, who had recently been elected Deputy for 
Havre, and had taken his seat among the Extreme 
Gauche. It was he who founded Le Havre, the chief 
Havre paper, which has since then been more or less 
eclipsed by its evening edition, Le Petit Havre. The 
latter was long afterwards among the keenest sup- 
porters of the Anglo-French agitation. M. Lecesne 
was anything but Anglophil. He attacked me 
violently about the disastrous consequences to 
France of seeking English friendship, and made me 
feel quite guilty of the evil deeds of Richard Cobden 
and other wicked Englishmen who had beguiled the 
French into signing that treacherous document the 
Commercial Treaty of i860. His language was so 
violent that Mme. Pelouze apologised for him. The 
treaty had evidently not been of unqualified benefit 
to the Havre shipping, which included M. Lecesne's 
business, that of shipowner. That grievances against 
England existed so near to English waters as Havre, 
especially grievances in connection with the famous 
treaty which I had always understood had been of 
unqualified benefit to both parties, took my uninitiate 
breath away. But M. Lecesne revealed other grievances 
against England to me. England had deserted France 
in the war of 1 870 when she might have stopped her 
being bled a blanc and saved her from the territorial 

36 



ANTI-ENGLISH SYMPTOMS 

spoliation to which she fell a victim. He could 
pardon Germany. She had been a sincere antagonist 
who avowed her object and made no pretence of not 
striving to reduce France to the dust, but England 
was a treacherous friend, and the French would never 
forget the conduct of her perfidious government, of 
her hypocritical Prime Minister, Mr. William Glad- 
stone, and he hissed out the " William "as if it were 
a word of abuse. 

This was not an isolated instance of the sudden 
growth of an unfriendly public opinion. It seemed as 
if the dam of the friendly feeling had given way 
and there was nothing now to prevent the latent 
traditional hostility from once more becoming active 
and overflowing. 

Jjjb Jfc JUL, -M. Jf. 

The announcement on November 25, 1875, that the 
British Government had purchased the Khedive's 
Suez Canal shares had excited the deepest distrust, 
and, now that the German scare had subsided, 
attention became concentrated on the activity of the 
perfi.de Albion in the Near East. British action in the 
Turkish crisis a year later did not improve Anglo- 
French relations. " L'egoiste Angleterre," as Gam- 
betta called her in January, 1877, was not to be 
counted upon for any act for which others might 
only be grateful. The feeling became so strong that 
Englishmen were already contemplating the possi- 
bility of serious trouble between the two countries. 
I remember about that time meeting in the street 
Lieutenant-General Palmer, who was then residing 
with his charming daughter (afterwards the wife of 
Mr. Pitt-Lewis, Q.C.) in Paris, and talking with him 
about the danger of a rupture with France. The 

37 



THIRTY YEARS 

General was quite excited about it. " They had 
better take care," he said ; " we are not to be trifled 
with, and if we have to fight, they will get a worse 
hiding than in 1870." I never quite realised how 
this was to be done, but it showed that hostile 
feelings were running high. War among the Great 
Powers, moreover, was already in the air. Insurrec- 
tion in Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Bulgaria had been 
followed by the outbreak of the Servian war in June, 
1876. General IgnatiefT on behalf of Russia and 
Lord Salisbury on behalf of England had been 
endeavouring to agree upon some terms of arrange- 
ment to be imposed on Turkey. They and then the 
Conference at Constantinople had failed. England 
and Russia seemed within an inch of war with each 
other. The Sultan's diplomacy had defeated them 
and the " concert of Europe." England and Germany 
seemed to be acting together on the one side and 
France and Russia, now regarded by French poli- 
ticians as the " true friend," on the other. 

yfp yfe ?f(. sjfs sgfi 

This Franco-Russian friendliness did not apply 
to the Jews or the financiers whom the Jews 
influenced. I was at the international gathering in 
Paris of the Jews of Europe held in 1876 to pro- 
test against the anti-Jewish measures in Roumania 
and there met Cremieux, one of the most curious 
and unforgetable figures of his time. Small, with 
a large head taillee a coups de bdche, as somebody 
said of him who, like myself, saw him then for the 
first time, he moved about slowly and benignly, and 
talked with extreme deliberation as if he wanted his 
words to eat deep into the hearers' grey matter. The 
memory of Cremieux' utterances has long been 

38 



ANTI-ENGLISH SYMPTOMS 

effaced, but his personal appearance nobody who ever 
met him will forget. He was then very old, and 
when at the banquet he went round the table at an 
early hour shaking hands with everyone present, one 
felt that he meant it to be " good-bye " for good, as 
it was. 

There were a number of handsome Jews at that 
meeting. A Mr. Henriquez (I think his name was) 
from Manchester, who was among the English 
delegates, struck me as one of the handsomest men I 
had ever met. He invited me to lunch with the 
English delegates at the Cafe Riche. It was curious 
to hear them talking about the other delegates as 
unpractical and time-wasting. They were just as 
stand-offish and self-opiniated as other Englishmen. 
If I am not mistaken, it was my old and trusty friend, 
Israel Davis, who introduced me to the inner circle of 
the remarkable men who had thus foregathered to 
influence the fate of their kinsmen in Eastern Europe. 
He, too, by the way, was a very handsome man, who, 
I used to think, would be an ideal model for a picture 
of Spinoza's teacher, Uriel Acosta, as I pictured him 
in my mind's eye. Another man I met at that 
historic conference was Baron Henry de Worms, also 
one of the handsome men present. At one of the 
meetings I remember a French Jew observing to me 
that the Baron had all the English characteristics, and 
he made exactly the same observation to me about 
the difficulty of getting the English Jews to fall into 
line as I had again and again heard of other English- 
men at international gatherings : " They want such 
a heap of reasons to be given them." 

# # # # # 

The outlook at the beginning of the year 1877 was 

39 



THIRTY YEARS 

as bad as it could be. Political wiseacres said wars 
which were expected never came off and were con- 
fident war would be averted. I remember calling on 
the banker, Armand Heine, in April, 1877, after the 
signing of the Russo-Roumanian Convention and 
before the Russian declaration of war a week later. 
" There will be no war," he said. " The Russian 
negotiations for a loan have fallen through. The 
Jews will lend neither Russia nor Roumania money 
till they treat their Jewish population better, and 
without the Jews no money will be had, and without 
money there will be no war." War was, nevertheless, 
declared on the 24th of the same month, and, to the 
astonishment of the Paris financiers, Russia seemed to 
have overcome the money difficulty somehow. We 
knew later she was paying for everything in paper 
at a loss to her treasury, which added enormously 
to the cost, which shows, however, that paper money 
can also in emergencies serve as " sinews of war." 

•U. «U> jU* jU. jul 

Soon after the resignation of the Marshal and the 
now final establishment of the Republican regime 
under the presidency of M. Grevy, the anti-English 
feeling became a sort of inflammable ingredient in the 
French political brain and remained so till 1900. At 
times it would burst into flame and at others merely 
give off an occasional puff of smoke, but there it was 
and remained ready at all times to flare up on the 
slightest provocation. 

In the same way as, later, the anti-German feeling 
in England began with the increase in the imports of 
German manufactured goods into England, it began 
with jealousy at the increase in the imports of 
British manufactured goods into France. 

40 



ANTI-ENGLISH SYMPTOMS 

It was M. Pouyer-Quertier, the wily Norman, who, 
in the negotiations of 1871 at Frankfurt, thought he 
had " caught out " Germany by securing for France 
the famous clause establishing, as between the con- 
tracting parties, that most-favoured-nation treatment 
in perpetuity which French protectionists have since 
seen turn out for the benefit of Germany instead of 
France, which they have never ceased execrating, and 
which as much as anything else has embittered French 
feeling against Germany. 

{■ It was again this mischievous busybody who excited 
the French against England. I was present at a 
meeting of the French protectionists in May, 1879. 
All the jeremiads on the decline of French trade were 
vented on Messieurs les Anglais. It was MM. les 
Anglais who had decoyed France into her false com- 
mercial policy in i860. " It was they who had 
coaxed and wheedled other nations into treaties by 
which they always profited. It was they against 
whom all Europe and their own colonies were closing 
their frontiers. England had protected her manu- 
factures and her shipping till she had prepared them 
to crush the rest of the world and then she had 
instituted Free Trade." (Immense applause.) He 
asked whether with all the rest of the world closed 
against England, France was to be left to cope with 
her single-handed. " England did all the carrying 
trade for France. You scarcely saw a French flag on 
a vessel coming into port now. . . . Did the English 
drink French wine in return ? " And amid great 
laughter he calculated that the English only drank 
about a bottle of wine per head per annum ! Other 
speakers followed on the same strain. England was 
at the bottom of all the industrial ills from which 

4 1 



THIRTY YEARS 

France was suffering. France was the only market 
into which English surplus manufactures could be 
dumped and so on. Before long, if not protected, 
France, like Portugal, would become a mere source of 
raw materials for the supply of England's industries. 1 
Truly indeed does history repeat itself ! Verbum 
sap. ! 

Amid the growing ill-feeling, even the eloquence of 
the then mighty Gambetta appealed to common sense 
in vain. His power for good was already being under- 
mined by the jealousy of his own political group, of 
the very men whose political fortunes he had made, 
and by M. Grevy' s distrust of him. It was a distrust 
which M. Grevy could neither explain nor overcome, 
and was quite unreasonable because his ministers were 
necessarily Gambetta's friends ; no others could 
command a majority in the Chamber. They were 
all being used up one after another, for in those days, 
when the spoils of office were still abundant, to take 
office was to make enemies of thousands of dis- 
appointed men. The time, therefore, was coming when 
M. Grevy in the last resort would have to call upon 
Gambetta himself to form a cabinet, and in 1881 it 
was an open secret that the year would not close 
without the long-expected Gambetta Ministry coming 
into office. 

At that time it was in quite sincere anticipation of 
its greatness that the coming Gambetta Administra- 

1 I indignantly concluded my article in The Times on this subject with 
the remark that " no gentleman present seemed to be aware that France 
exported more to England than England to France ; nor did anybody seem 
to imagine that French exports might be affected by other countries 
abandoning the false principles M. Pouyer-Quertier denounced, and 
indeed . . . the speakers showed no particular acquaintance with the 
details of the question at issue " (The Times, May i, 1879). 

42 



ANTI-ENGLISH SYMPTOMS 

tion was called " le grand ministere" a cabinet in 
which Gambetta would be supported by the Repub- 
lican leaders, for they were practically all of his 
making, and those who had already held office had 
held it only by the grace of his support. 

In September and October I accompanied Gam- 
betta on his two famous expeditions to Normandy, 
where he was treated as if he were again a dictator 
able to dispense favours, build docks, construct 
railways, bridges, schools, and distribute public 
money according to no other dictate but that of his 
private inclination. 

The rivalry of Rouen, which, with truly Norman 
pertinacity, was agitating for the canalisation of the 
Seine to enable ocean-going vessels to discharge their 
cargoes without breaking bulk at its quays, and Havre, 
which, with truly Norman obstinacy, was opposing the 
project on grounds which were undisguisedly selfish, 
divided the thriving department of Seine-Inferieure 
into hostile camps. Gambetta needed all the arts of 
his fertile brain to steer between these dangerous 
rocks. When he took over the reins of government, 
both sides of his Norman supporters thought every 
grievance would have its chance of being righted ! 
The very exaggeration of people's expectations was 
among the causes of his failure. Even Englishmen 
indulged a hope that his accession to office would 
promote good Anglo-French relations, especially that 
it would preserve the existing Anglo-French com- 
mercial regime, any disturbance of which could only 
fro tanto be a loss to the British industries concerned. 
For Gambetta was a Free Trader. In his speech at 
Honfleur he asked what would be the use of new docks 
and new railways, " of creating means of transport 

43 



THIRTY YEARS 

and exchange and intercommunication, if markets 
were not opened up, especially if the old ones were not 
kept open, if a commercial were not added to the 
industrial policy." " I think you are strong enough," 
he added, " ingenious enough, bold enough, and, at 
the same time, experienced and prudent enough, to 
face competitionjwith the nations surrounding us." 
This pronouncement in favour of ratifying the renewed 
treaties France had been negotiating in spite of M. 
Pouyer-Quertier, was full of promise. 

In the following month (November, 1881) M. Grevy 
sent for Gambetta and committed to him the forma- 
tion of the expected ministry. " Le President l'a 
roule " was the comment which went round the 
parliamentary corridors. Gambetta's chief political 
friends had all been in office, and all now had their own 
following. He could secure for it none of them, and 
had to choose his colleagues from a generation of 
younger and comparatively untried men. Yet that 
among them were Waldeck-Rousseau and Rouvier 
showed he had la main juste as usual. Le grand 
minister e, as his jealous opponents now, in the fulness 
of their ironical gaiety, called it more than ever, had 
not the support of the majority, and after two months 
of futile effort Gambetta laid down office with a 
bitter feeling of disappointment. He who had made 
M. Grevy' s ministries, who was the virtual dictator 
when out of office, was unable to command a majority 
when in office himself. It is true that Gambetta's 
faculties had been trained in opposition, and it is a 
political platitude to say that a brilliant opposition 
leader is not necessarily the best man to manage a 
nation's affairs, but Gambetta's failure in office was 
due to the opposition of his quondam friends. 

44 



ANTI-ENGLISH SYMPTOMS 

The strain of his parliamentary, combined with his 
journalistic life — for he was editor of the Republique 
francaise — was telling on him. 

His hair was already grey, though he was but 
forty-three years of age, and the bad state of his health 
was evident from the blotches which now began to 
disfigure his handsome face. 

Gambetta had been too near the misfortunes of his 
country, too near the national suffering, which he had 
seen not only in detail but in its ensemble, to favour 
new adventures. Peace to him seemed a means of 
redemption in the social order of things, and of greater 
value to France than even the glory of a successful 
revanche. In his declaration (November 15, i88f) to 
the Chambers on assuming office, he even went the 
length of stating that a part of the new cabinet's 
policy would be to take up and complete without loss 
of time the subject of seeking the best method, without 
compromising the defensive strength of France, of 
reducing the military and naval charges weighing 
upon the nation. 

This was the Radical feeling generally at that time. 
His adversary, M. Clemenceau, had been still more 
clamorous for a reduction of the military burdens. 
The programme to which he appended his signature 
in the eighteenth arrondissement of Paris for which 
he was elected included not only a reduction of the 
period of military service, but the substitution of a 
national militia for the permanent army. 

Men's minds have changed since then ! 

# # # # # 

Gambetta was altogether a fascinating figure. 
In private conversation there was even a fascina- 
tion in his frank avowal of ignorance. He made no 

45 



THIRTY YEARS 

pretence of having knowledge he did not possess, and 
never apologised for putting elementary questions. 
While the Sugar Conference was sitting, I was near 
him one night when he was conversing with one 
of the Dutch delegates who was visibly astonished 
at Gambetta's asking him what kind of government 
the Netherlands possessed, and a number of other 
questions which showed that Gambetta had not had 
time to get up the subject of Holland. He had a 
habit of writing up his facts in a fine handwriting 
on a square sheet of paper. M. Joseph Reinach has 
given me a photograph of one of these prepared for 
some speech on government in which he was referring 
to English institutions. It runs as follows : — 

" L'Angleterre et le Pays de Galles se divisent en 52 Comtes, 
Paroisses, Bourgs incorpores. 

" i° Le Comte par son etendue repond a peu pres a nos 
cantons. 

" 2° Le Bourg est une espece de commune qui tient d'un 
acte du Parlement ou d'une Charte Royale le droit de s'ad- 
ministrer et meme de se gouverner. 

" 3° LaParoisse n'est a proprementparlerpas unepersonne 
politique. Sa fonction est de repartir entre les habitants les 
impots votes par un pouvoir superieur et d'entretenir les 
routes. 

" Les principales autorites du Comte sont : Juge de Paix, 
Sherif, Lord Lieutenant, Le gardien des roles, Le Greffier de 
Paix, Les Coroners, 

Aucun n'est electif. 

" Comment la liberte s'introduit-elle done dans la vie locale 
de l'Angleterre ? " 

Observe the shrewdness of his final remark. 

M. Joseph Reinach acted for some time as his 
political secretary, and has many interesting things 
to tell of his great friend and his great friend's 
friends. 



ANTI-ENGLISH SYMPTOMS 

The story of Gambetta's one great love attachment 
has been made known to the world in a series of letters 
of touching beauty, and many romantic legends have 
grown up around it. The complete truth is known 
only to M. Joseph Reinach. Gambetta met Mme. 
Leonie Leon at the house of the Duchesse de Bell- 
court, whose son, an attache in the diplomatic service, 
was a friend of Gambetta's. Gambetta fell madly in 
love with her. On a ring he gave her he had the old 
French motto engraved : 

Hors cet annel 'point rCest amour. 

She never parted with it, and his love never waned. 
I have M. Reinach's authority for saying that after 
refusing again and again to marry him, she con- 
sented a couple of months before his death to become 
his wife, but the ceremony was deferred until it was 

too late. 

* # # # # 

Justice has not yet been done fully to Gambetta's 
political insight into the needs and character of the 
French people. Yet the chief lines of Republican 
policy, as he forecast it, have been followed out, and 
are still being followed out by his countrymen at the 
present day. He is said to have had Jewish blood in 
his Provencal-Etrurian veins — a subtle and powerful 
mixture on which it would be hard to improve. He 
was lively, almost boisterous, witty yet good- 
natured, in spite of his eloquent diatribes forgiving 
and gentle, and, like a true child of the South, he had 
a childish love of the pageantry of power. I noticed 
it again and again when with him in Normandy. 

His delight in drums and uniforms and ceremony 
came out when he was President of the Chamber of 

47 



THIRTY YEARS 

Deputies. One day when I was in the lobby the 
President passed to take his seat au pas militaire with 
drums in front and surrounded by a military escort. 
It was quite stirring. A Deputy moving out of the 
way to make room said to another, paraphrasing the 
well-known joke about notaries ; " Pour etre un bon 
President, il ne suffit pas d'etre un mediocre saltim- 
banque, il faut de la tenue ! " 

I don't know whether it was Gambetta who intro- 
duced the drum, etc., but it was very effective and a 
fairly good substitute for our own ceremony of the 
Speaker proceeding to the bar of the House of Lords. 

After he retired from office Gambetta was never the 
same man again. His manner became almost apolo- 
getic. He felt that his quondam followers needed him 
no more, even found it safer to do without him, for 
his had been the fate of the prophet of whom miracles 
were expected, and he had done nothing to startle 
those who had counted on a sort of millennium when 
the grand ministere set to work. 

■Jv* •Jr *Jr -It* •B* 

The political milieu in which I found myself at that 
time chuckled with glee over President Grevy's 
victory. To M. Grevy Gambetta seemed a charlatan, 
and he regarded the exposure of his charlatanism by 
the failure of the grand ministere as a service rendered 
to his country. 

In the Paris office of The Times, also, there was 
little sympathy for Gambetta except my own. 
Blowitz, an ardent Catholic, resented Gambetta's 
anti-clerical policy, as well as the well-known 
reference to him in the Republique francaise, as 
" Juif, slav, catholique et decore." Nevertheless, in 
the interest of The Times, he approached Gambetta 

4 8 



ANTI-ENGLISH SYMPTOMS 

on several occasions. In his " Memoirs " he refers 
to these. Mr., and afterwards his wife Mrs. Emily, 
Crawford, the correspondent of the Daily News, 
which was the leading organ of English Liberalism of 
that time, kept up, as Gambetta's personal friends, a 
sort of feud in which they were as strongly hostile 
10 Blowitz as Gambetta's paper, a feud which 
persisted till many years after Gambetta's death, 
when as the friend of both, I was the means of 
bringing it to an end. 

Gambetta's character was essentially derived from 
the Italian middle-class side of his family tree. Any 
one who has any acquaintance with the Etrurian 
peasantry will be reminded by Gambetta's senti 
mentalism, buoyant good humour, indifference to 
wealth, enjoyment of his own vitality and glorious 
voice, of the peasants and petty bourgeoisie who come 
together in the evening to hear an entertainer who 
ives them no more thrilling amusement than the 
recitation in sonorous tones of grandiloquent verses 
of popular poets not excluding Dante. Amid the 
people of Provence he was quite at home. In the 
north he felt himself an alien, and schemers for place 
were more than a match for him who never schemed 
for any selfish purpose. " Mefiez-vous d'un bordelais 
roux," somebody said to him when he was trusting 
one of his followers, a very distinguished man who 
soon supplanted him when his star began to wane. 

There was something childish in the pleasure it gave 
Gambetta to meet the Prince of Wales privately as a 
personal friend in 1877, but I do not agree with Mme. 
Adam that it was the Prince's influence that affected 
his convictions in regard to foreign affairs. His 
peasant common sense more than any alien arguments, 

T.Y. 49 E 



THIRTY YEARS 

I feel sure, determined his leaning to a policy of 
conciliation and peace. Besides, he, least of all men, 
could be suspected of weak-kneed patriotism. He it 
was who said, " Pensons-y toujours, n'en parlons 
jamais " ; though this did not prevent his going to 
Germany more than once, and I firmly believe he 
hoped some day to see French feeling about Alsace- 
Lorraine become mild enough to facilitate an under- 
standing with her. At the same time in co-operation 
with England, he saw a horizon of greater national 
self-confidence for France and a possible medium of 
bringing Western Europe to a normal condition of 
peace and amity. 

* # # * # 

M. Grevy was a quiet unostentatious man who 
hated all fussiness and pose. Chess was his favourite 
recreation, and good players he had met in the old 
days at the Cafe de la Regence, the rendezvous of 
chess-players, were still admitted to a game with 
him after he had become the chief of the State. In 
conversation he had the knack of knocking out the 
bottom of an argument, when its exponents had 
nothing more to say, with a terse but courteous 
observation. At cabinet meetings it was well known 
that he never attempted to impose any view of 
his own, and yet always got his own way. By 
appropriate observations he destroyed all other 
suggestions one after another, and left alone open 
the course he wished to be followed. He had a 
habit of peering into men's characters rather than 
their views and ideas, which he believed he could 
divine if he knew their character. The hand was a 
barometer which gave him his first impressions of the 
inner man. Hence his habit of holding everybody's 

50 



ANTI-ENGLISH SYMPTOMS 

hand for a few moments in his. He distrusted fat, 
soft hands in men. 

M. Grevy, who, by the way, was never referred to 
as Grevy tout court, once told me he had been very 
much impressed by an English solicitor who had come 
over to Paris on a case in which he had been retained. 
M. Grevy thought him the ablest and wisest man he 
had ever met, but he could not remember his name. 
I thought from the circumstances that it must have 
been Sir John Hollams, who afterwards told me he 
had, in fact, been engaged in a case with M. Grevy. 
Sir John, when I spoke to him of this, was a very old 
man, but I remember him as he was in the prime of 
life, and can quite understand the impression he 
produced in the handling of a complicated matter. 



51 E 2 



CHAPTER IV 



EGYPT 



The anti-English irritation in connection with 
Egypt, occasioned by Lord Beaconsfield's purchase 
of the Khedive's holding in the Suez Canal, showed no 
signs of abating. In subsequent events, despite their 
conciliatory appearance, French politicians saw only 
a disguised intention on the part of the British Govern- 
ment, gradually to get the upper hand and reduce 
France in Egypt to the same secondary position as 
that of other States in that country. The " counter " 
policy, as a French writer expressed it in 1881, 
necessarily became one of " multiplying obstacles to 
the advance of British policy, and for this purpose of 
supporting the Egyptian Nationalist Party, whose 
claims had served as a pretext to Ismail Pasha to 
start on the series of intrigues which brought about 
his deposition. This party, if granted discreet but 
effective assistance, offered a basis for a complete 
political system in which France, being less dangerous 
than England for Egypt, would have acquired a great 
moral authority." - 1 

These ideas were in fact those which the French 
consul-general at Cairo, M. de Ring, was endeavouring 
to carry out. 

In 1878. M. Fournier, then French ambassador at 

1 Andre Daniel, "Annee Politique," 1881, p. 248. England, predicted 
this acute observer, would nevertheless gradually absorb Egypt to 
guarantee for her ships safe navigation in the Suez Canal (1882, p. 32). 

52 



EGYPT 

Constantinople, whom I met at Chenonceaux when 
on a visit to Mme. Pelouze, told me that much as he 
appreciated the fine, straightforward qualities of 
English diplomatists, English diplomacy was a harsh, 
self-seeking system which rode rough-shod over the 
feelings and aspirations of all who had the misfortune 
to cross the path traced for it towards an always 
specific goal. Still, like the French commissioner, 
M. de Blignieres, he regarded the maintenance of 
the dual control and steady co-operation with England 
as in the true interest of France. This was also 
Gambetta's view, and when after the bombardment of 
Alexandria, from which the French fleet withdrew by 
orders of M. de Freycinet, Gambetta's successor at 
the Foreign Office, the progress of events forced 
France to decide whether she would vote the neces- 
sary money to enable her to join England in the 
action events were precipitating, he delivered a 
speech on the subject of Anglo-French co-operation 
in which the following passage marked his unwavering 
trust in this co-operation : — 

" When I behold Europe," he said, " this Europe 
which has bulked so largely to-day in the speeches 
delivered from this tribune, I observe that for ten 
years there has always been a Western policy repre- 
sented by France and England, and allow me to say 
that I do not know of any other European policy 
capable of helping us in the direst emergencies which 
may arise. What I say to you to-day I say with a 
deep sense of a vision of the future." 

I was present at the debate and heard the half- 
hearted approval given to the above utterance of the 
grand tribun and even disdainful disapproval muttered 
when he spoke of his vision of the future. The lion 

53 



THIRTY YEARS 

in him was roused. " Let those who interrupt me," 
he thundered, " come here and state their reasons for 
thinking that my word is without honour in the domain 
of foreign affairs. I am entitled to say that, before 
as since the war of 1870, I have never had a more 
constant anxiety, and believe me an anxiety superior 
to all personal and party interests, than that of the 
safety of our country, and I should despise myself 
and never raise my voice again to speak in this House 
if I were capable of balancing anything against its 
future and its greatness." 

There was a moving pathos and a true ring of 
sincerity in these words, and cheers burst from the 
whole assembly. The sincerity of Gambetta's 
patriotism had been questioned by some of his now 
numerous enemies, and party capital made out of 
his visits to Germany and an alleged intercourse with 
that arch-enemy of France, Prince Bismarck. The 
key-note which could set all the organs of his oratory 
vibrating had been struck, and when Gambetta shook 
back his rebellious hair and gathered his faculties for 
an effect nothing could resist him. The words would 
gush forth too fast for premeditation, his voice without 
hoarseness or effort would dominate the hall, and when 
he had fired his last charge, a few breathless moments 
of intense silence would pass before the assembled 
listeners could find their voices again to cheer, as I 
have never heard man cheered before or after him. 
When one reads Gambetta's speeches, one is struck by 
their want of depth. Though it was he who laid down 
the main lines of the Republican policy which has ever 
since been consistently followed, his speeches are not 
literature or masterpieces of eloquence. Gambetta's 
power as an orator lay in his perfect and simulta- 

54 



EGYPT 

neous command over all his faculties of mind and 
body, and in his power to marshal them all and at 
once to the effort. His rich masculine diction and 
noble gesture and his obvious sincerity and spontaneity 
forced the admiration of his bitterest foes though it 
failed to convince them. 

Recently I heard similar eloquence in Spain among 
elder politicians. In the present age, it seems merely 
to strike the listener as a belated survival. But any- 
thing that reminds me of Gambetta's eloquence, as 
did that of my old friend, Rafael M. de Labra, 
still stirs me, and I am not sure that the world is 
better for being unable to enjoy the music, manner, 
and massive expression of the Gladstones, the Gam- 
bettas, the Castelars, who flourished in the youth 
of my generation. 

With this last speech relating to Anglo-French 
affairs Gambetta passes beyond the scope of the 
present volume. On the last day of the same year 
at midnight he died. If man can die of a broken heart, 
or ingratitude can break the heart of man, Gambetta 
had every reason to die. Posterity has not yet 
realised all the greatness of a statesman who some 
day will certainly be ranked among the wisest and 
the noblest of the creative political geniuses of his 

country. 

# * # # # 

A large majority in both Houses gave M. de Frey- 
cinet the necessary money to put the fleet in readiness 
for action, but when he asked for further money to 
use it for the protection of the Suez Canal, M. Clemen- 
ceau's incisive and ironical eloquence turned the 
majority round. The vote was lost and the govern- 
ment defeated. 

55 



THIRTY YEARS 

Lord Granville can only have rejoiced at this result, 
as in fact he seems to have done. 1 Indeed, it is 
difficult to imagine what would have ensued, had the 
two Powers required to adjust their claims on Egyptian 
territory. The Due de Broglie in the debate in the 
Senate quoted Prince Bismarck as having compared 
a joint Anglo-French occupation of Egypt to the 
Austro-Prussian occupation of Schleswig-Holstein, 
and cited Prince Metternich as having said that an 
alliance with England was a very good thing ; so was 
the alliance of a rider and his horse, " mais il faut 
etre l'homme et non pas le cheval." He (de Broglie) 
feared that France in any alliance with England 
would not be the rider. 

Be that as it may, France was counselled by her 
most trusted advisers to abstain from taking any 
share in the occupation of Egypt. Yet, she bitterly 
resented the English invasion, and afterwards till the 
entente enabled the parties to come to terms in 1904, 
the British occupation of Egypt was the sorest of the 
French grievances against England, a fact which was 
brought home to us with relentless and constantly 
recurring persistency. Lord Cromer has described 
the state of things in Egypt itself, with the authority 
of the man who had to bear the brunt of French 
opposition to every effort he made for the welfare of 
the country he was sent to help administer. 

M. Duclerc succeeded M. de Freycinet at the 
Foreign Office in Paris. The battle of Tel-el-Kebir 
had been fought, Arabi had surrendered in September, 
1882, and the occupation had begun. On the 20th 
of the same month M. Duclerc told the British 

1 Lord Fitzmaurice's " Life of the Second Earl Granville," Vol. II. , 
p. 261. 

56 



EGYPT 

Charge d' Affaires in Paris " that he thought it 
would be in the interest of England to give at an 
early date some notion of what her future intentions 
were with regard to Egypt." It was impossible at 
that moment, says Lord Cromer, to state, " save in 
the most general terms, what were the intentions of 
England as regards Egypt, and it soon became 
apparent that the only point to which for the 
moment the French Government attached any real 
importance was the continuance of the Anglo-French 
control as it existed previous to the occupation. 
The Egyptian Government, on the other hand, wished 
the institution to be abolished on the ground that its 
dual nature and semi-political character had caused 
great inconvenience. Public opinion in England 
pronounced strongly in favour of its abolition." 1 In 
spite of pressure by France, the British Government 
declined to accede to the French wish. The presi- 
dency of the Commission of the Debt was offered 
to France, but she declined to accept as an equiva- 
lent for the abolition of the control, a position which 
was simply that of cashier. Eventually, after some 
sharp diplomatic skirmishing, the negotiations were 
dropped and the French Government " resumed its 
liberty of action in Egypt." 

dfc Jfr «lfa Jfc Jfe 

In the following January, Lord Granville addressed 
his famous circular to the Powers in which he gave 
that ill-omened pledge which was the chief argument 
for nearly a quarter of a century, that perfide Albion 
amply deserved the epithet. " Although for the 
present," he said, " a British force remains in Egypt 
for the preservation of public tranquillity, Her 

1 Earl Cromer, "Modern Egypt." London, p. 263. 

57 



THIRTY YEARS 

Majesty's Government are desirous of withdrawing it 
as soon as the state of the country and the organisation 
of proper means for the maintenance of the Khedive's 
authority will admit of it. In the meanwhile, the 
position in which Her Majesty's Government are 
placed towards His Highness imposes upon them the 
duty of giving advice, with the object of securing that 
the order of things to be established shall be of a 
satisfactory character and possess the elements of 
stability and progress." And then came Lord Duf- 
ferin's mission to Egypt to report upon the measures 
necessary to ensure that " the administration of 
affairs should be reconstructed on a basis which would 
afford satisfactory guarantees for the maintenance of 
peace, order and prosperity in Egypt, for the stability 
of the Khedive's authority, for the judicious develop- 
ment of self-government, and for the fulfilment of 

obligations towards the Powers." 

# * # # * 

One of the side issues of the Egyptian question was 
the management of the Suez Canal. On May 10, 
1883, a meeting took place at the Cannon Street Hotel 
of persons interested in the Eastern trade, to consider 
the construction of a second canal through the 
isthmus. The meeting gave vent to prevalent dis- 
satisfaction with reference to delay, over-charges, 
insanitary conditions, but chiefly to the inconvenience 
of a system under which the English traffic, which 
formed the bulk of the tonnage passing through the 
canal, was entirely under French control. The legal 
question of whether M. de Lesseps' concession con- 
stituted a monopoly, was disposed of by arguing that, 
as he admitted that there was not enough land under 
his concession to build a second canal, he was not 

58 



EGYPT 

entitled to prevent being done by others what he 
could not do himself. In any case, claims which he 
might possess could only involve an indemnity. 
Fortified by eminent counsel's opinion, the agitators 
succeeded in exciting so much attention that M. de 
Lesseps and his son Victor came over to London to 
negotiate a settlement. Mr. Gladstone took up the 
matter personally, but the heads of agreement arrived 
at did not satisfy all the demands of the shipowners. 
They did not guarantee freedom of passage to British 
trade at all times. Nor did they overcome the 
absurdity of having to transact all the canal busi- 
ness in Paris. Nor did they secure a proportionate 
British representation on the Board of Directors. 
The opposition to the arrangement was so widespread 
that the Government withdrew it. 

In June, 1884, M. Victor de Lesseps sent for me and 
I was professionally instructed in connection with the 
opening of a London office. With the opening of 
that office and the appointment of English Directors 
the agitation came abruptly to an end. The London 
office has worked under the precautionary conditions 
I advised, with scarcely a hitch since its foundation 
under the judicious guidance of my friend M. 
Chevassus, who recently retired from a post he had 

honourably filled for thirty years. 

# * * # # 

My connection with the Suez Canal Company 
brought me into contact with M. Ferdinand de 
Lesseps, whom I got more than once to attend the 
annual banquets of the British Chamber of Commerce. 
On one of these occasions when I was his neighbour, he 
was communicative about himself, and told me one 
thinglwhich I remember particularly well, because I 

59 



THIRTY YEARS 

have ever since followed the advice he deduced from 
his experience. He had quite early in life found that 
his sum of energy at any time was in proportion to 
the amount of sleep he could obtain, combined with 
the adaptation of his food to the capacity of his 
digestive organs. In itself that is a mere platitude. 
His advice was equally so ; eat as much as you can 
digest, take as much sleep as circumstances permit. 
The interesting fact he told me was that, when he 
travelled to Egypt, he slept practically all the way, 
merely turning out of his berth to feed and returning 
to it as soon as the meal was over. The result was 
that when he arrived at Port Said he could do almost 
entirely without sleep for several days. Whenever 
he had nothing else to do he slept, in his office, in his 
carriage, in the train, in an ante-room if he had to wait 
there for anybody, in fact wherever he happened to 
be. I followed his advice and soon acquired the same 
facility in inducing sleep. To this habit de Lesseps 
ascribed his extraordinary vitality. He lived, as 
everybody knows, to ninety years of age. During 
my Anglo-French and Anglo-American campaigns, 
when I was obliged to get a good deal of my sleep 
in scraps, the habit I had acquired under de 
Lesseps' advice sometimes astonished those who 
accompanied me. 

# # * # # 

After the first Suez Canal Board meeting, attended 
by the new English directors, I one day met Victor 
de Lesseps, who told me the new Board was im- 
possible. Though not one of whom was an engineer, 
they would not trust the reports of the Company's 
technical experts and wanted to go themselves to 
Egypt to decide the question of the widening or 

60 



EGYPT 

the doubling of the canal on the spot ! I tried to 
console him with the advice that he should not 
hesitate to agree ; they would probably have more 
confidence, if not thwarted. I think he took the 
advice. Anyhow, things soon adjusted themselves, 
and the absorption of the opposition showed once 
more that the best way of disarming your opponent 
is to make him responsible for results. 



CHAPTER V 

A DISCIPLE OF COBDEN 

In 1882 my relative Mr. (now Sir) William 
Crawford, president-elect of the British Chamber 
of Commerce in Paris, asked me if I would allow 
myself to be elected a director and honorary 
secretary of that institution, a post until then held by 
Mr. Kenric B. Murray, who had just been appointed 
secretary of the recently founded London Chamber 
of Commerce. This was the beginning of my long- 
standing connection with the chamber of commerce 
in question. With it my name became identified to 
such an extent that to this day I get letters addressed 
to me as president of that chamber, though it is now 
nearly fourteen years since my active collaboration in 
its work came to an end. 

In the chamber of commerce I learnt to deal with 
the public affairs concerned, no longer as a reporter or 
critic, but as a responsible representative of the trade 
interests involved. Of the " B.C.C.," as we used 
familiarly to call our beloved chamber, after serving 
four years as hon. secretary, I was, later on, for 
two years vice-president and lastly for two years 
president. 

There were some fine men in Paris in those days, 
and for two of them in particular I had the warmest 
affection. The one was William Crawford, in whose 
charming house in the Avenue du Bois de Boulogne, 

62 



A DISCIPLE OF COBDEN 

surrounded by a wife and children whom it was 
a joy to know, I spent many happy hours. His 
value to the York Street Spinning Company at 
Belfast was in due course recognised, and he left Paris 
some twenty or more years ago to take the general 
management of that enormous undertaking. Another 
was Mr. Thomas Pilter, the founder of the largest 
British house in Paris, whose business was the sale 
and manufacture of agricultural implements and 
machinery, and whom both Crawford and I regarded 
as one of the wisest of men. I made his acquaintance 
at the great Exhibition of 1878, when I was writing 
a series of articles for The Times on the agricultural 
exhibits. He, Crawford, and I used to be known 
in the B.C.C. as the leaders of the " Pilter Party." 
It included his son-in-law, Mr. Thomas Hounsfield ; 
Mr. (now Sir) John Pilter, his son ; Mr. Priestley, 
who represented the thread interest of Paisley ; and 
Mr. Delano, whose name was long identified with 
the asphalt-paving of Paris and other cities, and 
who has now transferred his activities to London. 
Of these good friends all are still living except Mr. 
Thomas Pilter and Mr. Priestley, and the Pilter 
family still continue to render yeoman service to 
the chamber in the persons of Sir John Pilter and 
Mr. Hounsfield. / 

When I joined the B.C.C. the absorbing question 
was still that of the Anglo-French Treaty of Com- 
merce. The Treaty of i860 had been to the rest of 
the world what Peel's historic volte-face in 1846 had 
been to the United Kingdom. Both were due to 
Cobden's persuasive genius and both were revolutions 
which started new eras in the application of economic 

6S 



THIRTY YEARS 

thought and action. The full import of the Treaty 
of i860 can only be realised when the state of things 
in France prior to the treaty regime is apprehended. 
The then system was one of practical prohibition. 
After the Exhibition of 1855 the French Government, 
it is true, had tried to carry a mild measure of reducing 
prohibition to duties, still ranging from about 60 to 
30 per cent, (value), but had failed. That effort, it 
is also true, had prepared the prohibitionists for 
impending reform, and the cotton spinners had to be 
satisfied with a sort of pledge that no reduction would 
be made till 1861. Meanwhile Michel Chevalier and 
others were able, on the one hand, to show the pro- 
gress of England under reduced duties and, on the 
other, to tranquillise the French manufacturers with 
assurances that there would be a bargain and that 
France would give nothing without getting an ample 
return. 

The Treaty of i860, wrote, however, Sir Louis Mallet 
in 1865 in the fervour of his Free Trade convictions, 
was not " a bargain in which each party sought to 
give as little and gain as much as possible," but " was 
a work of co-operation in which the Governments of 
England and France were resolved on both sides to 
remove, within the limits of their power, the artificial 
obstacles to their commercial intercourse." x To this 
result England had contributed her share by removing 
from her tariffs most of the remaining traces of Pro- 
tection and by reducing her fiscal duties on wine 
and brandy ; while France substituted moderate 
duties for prohibition in the case of the chief British 
exports. 2 

1 Bernard Mallet, " Sir Louis Mallet, A record of public service and 
political ideals" : London, 1905, p. 57. 
» Hid., p. 57. 

64 



A DISCIPLE OF COBDEN 

The Anglo-French Treaty of Commerce of i860, like 
the Anglo-French Treaty of Arbitration of 1903, was 
the first of a series of similar treaties. Fifty or sixty 
such treaties followed each other which had the effect 
of reducing the tariffs of Europe by about half. 1 
* # # # # 

Cobden died (1865) before I came to years of 
discretion, but, as the reader is aware, I knew 
Michel Chevalier and his two younger friends and 
collaborators Mr. T. B. Potter and Sir Louis Mallet. 
With T. B. Potter and his son A. B. Potter, who 
takes wing with the swallows in autumn and returns 
with them in spring looking as healthy and hearty 
as ever despite medical misgivings, I frequently 
dined when he came to Paris in his appartement 
at the Bristol. Though T. B. Potter had given up 
hope of seeing France in his lifetime change the 
current of her policy once more towards commercial 
freedom, he felt confident she would see her industries 
in the long run ruined by Protection and that she 
would then throw the system over as England had 
done in the forties. He was an old man, and after 
dinner, when he had fallen asleep, Arthur and I con- 
tinued the argument, for, at that time, I regretted 
we had no duties to take off, or at any rate some 
reserve of duties, in case of need, to put on. 

Sir Louis Mallet, whose acquaintance I made when 
he came over in 1877 to negotiate the renewal of the 
Treaty of i860, had little patience with such heresies. 
" Besides," said he, " a man of lofty principles, like 
Mr. Gladstone, would regard such an apostasy as a 
political crime. It would open the floodgates of 

1 " Free Trade and European Treaties of Commerce," Preface by Sir 
Louis Mallet : Cobden Club, 1875. 

T.Y. 65 F 



THIRTY YEARS 

Protection. Fighting duties would be the breach, 
and the principle of Free Trade would be swept away 
without a shred of an argument remaining to dam the 
outpouring flood." 

In January, 1877, the year when the negotiations 
were opened, I had written an article on the Treaties 
in The Times in which, as Paris correspondent, I 
examined the statistics of Anglo-French trade before 
and after i860, and in which I find my views on the 
subject just about what they are to-day after I have 
had thirty-six years of practical experience of the 
working of tariffs in France. " There are doubtless 
instances," I wrote, however, " in which protection 
— indeed prohibition — has seemed to lead to ultimate 
benefit, and there is much to be said for a moderate 
protection on many articles of consumption apart 
from the interests of the public revenue. But 
enlightened economists teach, and it is now generally 
admitted that a protection which limits a healthy 
national consumption is only one of the many narrow- 
minded survivals of the exploded system which it 
has been the mission of the disciples of the new 
system to overcome." 

It was this view as to moderate protection Sir Louis 
Mallet condemned with such vehemence, and I am 
bound to say I now share the view he expressed in the 
name of Gladstone, for Sir Louis Mallet was always 
careful to temper his views with some qualifying 
observation to let his " interlocutor " know that he 
was a discreet public official. 

In the article I credited " enlightened economists " 
with the notion of the undesirability of " limiting 
a healthy national consumption." Now such a 

66 



A DISCIPLE OF COBDEN 

statement reads like a platitude, and yet the whole 
theory of Protection is based on the assumption that 
prosperity can follow artificial restrictions on con- 
sumption. My examination of the statistics bore out 
that the diminution of the French import duties in 
i860 instead of curtailing production and exports had 
been followed by an immense expansion. 

For Cobden I had an admiration which has only 
grown with further knowledge of his great work. At 
a Manchester meeting once my late namesake Mr. 
Robert Barclay described me as one of Cobden's 
political descendants. Seeing that I have devoted 
my political life to the great objects of his, the pro- 
motion of free trade, peace and good-will among 
nations, I am truly one of his disciples. And as 
I have been able to carry forward successfully the 
entente with France, which he regarded as essential 
to their realization, I may claim some sort of 
posthumous affiliation to one who was perhaps the 
greatest statesman of his time, for though he never 
held office, his influence in statesmanship was only 
the greater. Nobody could suspect his convictions of 
connection with personal interests or motives. Nor 
had he place with which to reward his supporters. 
His arguments and his personal magnetism were 
all the political artillery he possessed to do battle 
with ignorance and vested interests. That he won 
is an encouragement for honest conviction and an 
answer to those who think a nation's international 
interests are best left exclusively to an official 
diplomacy. 

^ 7fe -W "ff W 

In 1900, two of Cobden's daughters, Mrs. Fisher 

67 f 2 



THIRTY YEARS 

Unwin and Mrs. Cobden Sanderson, were invited by 
the " Societe d'Economie politique " to a dinner in 
their father's honour, and on the occasion of the 
Cobden centenary in June, 1904, I was among the 
speakers, but it was in an article in the Matin of 
June 6, 1904, that I revived the question of an Anglo- 
French Treaty of Commerce and struck a warning 
note that the French proposal to revise the duties on 
British goods might introduce an element of instability 
into Anglo-French relations and that to raise them 
might be regarded as an unfriendly act by British 
manufacturers. 

As the matter it deals with is as fresh to-day as 
ever, I give it in full as it appeared in an excellent 
translation in the Paris Daily Messenger : — 

" All the Free Traders are celebrating at the present 
moment the first centenary of Cobden's birth. I say the 
Free Traders. The name of Cobden is, in fact, associated 
with the great economic revolution of which he was pioneer 
and the chief artisan. But Cobden's economic propositions 
were only one of the methods by which he hoped to give 
reality to ideas of a much more fundamental character. Free 
Trade for him was only a form of freedom. Alongside tariffs, 
he considered great armaments and militarism generally as a 
menace to freedom. War for him was the violation of the 
most sacred rights of the individual, human retrogression, 
organised bestial ferocity, assassination en masse ordained 
as a rule of conduct. 

" The predominating principle of Cobden's life was that 
freedom from every standpoint was the final object towards 
which democratic progress should tend. He was a great 
humanitarian, but a practical one. He believed that the 
sacrifice of the interest of the one to the interest of the other 
in order to permit the latter to make a profit, was an expro- 
priation contrary to individual freedom. He had two objects : 
to equalise the chances in the industrial struggle and diminish 
the chances of war between nations. They have been per- 
petuated in the motto of the Cobden Club — " Free Trade 
— Peace — Good Will among Nations." Free competition, 

68 



A DISCIPLE OF COBDEN 

unhampered emulation, international stability, good will 
among men : these belong to the life of trade. His object was 
to extend them to the life of nations. Peace abroad to permit 
development at home. Elbow room on all sides to permit 
free scope for the growth of that healthy vitality which alone 
ensures continuous progress and prosperity among nations as 
among individuals. 



" International peace was for him an essential factor of his 
conception. For this reason, already in 1849, he took up 
the question of International Arbitration. In his view the 
two countries which first had to come together, and, as a 
practical man, he dealt with them alone, were France and 
Great Britain. Two nations which, owing to their parallel 
political institutions and the similarity of their time-honoured 
popular traditions, were destined to move forward side by 
side in the enlargement of liberties equally cherished by them 
both. In 1849 he brought forward a resolution in the House 
of Commons of which he explained the sense to a friend in the 
following terms : ' You seem to be puzzled about my motion 
in favour of International Arbitration. Perhaps you have 
mixed it up with other theories to which I am no party. My 
plan does not embrace any scheme of a congress of nations 
or imply the belief in the millennium, or demand your homage 
to the principles of non-resistance. I simply propose that 
England should offer to enter into an agreement with other 
countries, France, for instance, binding them to refer any 
dispute that may arise to Arbitration. I do not mean to 
refer the matter to another Sovereign Power, but that each 
party should appoint plenipotentiaries in the form of commis- 
sioners, with a proviso for calling in Arbitrators in case they 
cannot agree. In fact, I wish merely to bind them to do that 
before a war, which nations always do virtually afterwards.' 

" Cobden's resolution came too soon. He did not live to 
see his proposal taken up again almost word for word by Lord 
Salisbury, the chief of the Conservative Party, of which he 
had been one of the most active antagonists. He did not 
live to see the signature of Lord Salisbury at the foot of a 
treaty with the United States, binding the British people to 
the very formula he had himself devised and which the Senate 
of the United States rejected by a minority sufficient, accord- 
ing to the United States Constitution, for the rejection of an 
international treaty. How things have changed ! What an 

69 



THIRTY YEARS 

inversion of parts ! What an irony of fate ! The Senate of 
the United States surpassed in Liberalism by the old English 
Conservatives ! 

" It is with France, as Cobden foresaw, that the first Treaty 
of Arbitration has been signed. He it was, however, who 
brought about the signature of another Treaty, a Treaty 
which produced brilliant results so long as it remained in 
force — the Anglo-French Treaty of i860. 



" Cobden was not a doctrinaire. Unfortunately, many of 
those who have adopted a part of his ideas as their creed have 
become so. Free Trade, for him, as I have already said, was 
a form of freedom. He saw its advantages as he saw those 
of political freedom, religious freedom, educational freedom, 
civic freedom. But his eyes were not shut to the difficulties 
of application. Above all, as he always said, we had to 
be practical and see things as they are, to build solid 
foundations, but to make the structures we erect upon them 
adaptable to the fluctuations of human affairs. He was an 
enthusiast but he was not a visionary, and I can well imagine 
him saying to-day ' Let us be practical, let us take into account 
the national equation as we would take into account the 
personal equation. For the relations between nations, 
stability is obtained through Treaties of Commerce and not 
from voluntary Free Trade. Certainty can only exist in 
consequence of a written document with a fixed duration 
between nations as between individuals. We must not be 
carried away by doctrine, but have confidence that in the end 
the public, better instructed by thinkers, by the intellectual 
teaching of a Press recruited more and more from the national 
intellect, will eventually come to understand the short- 
sightedness, the grovelling dependence, the senility of Pro- 
tectionism, an institution useful for the very young or the 
very aged, but degrading for men in the prime of life.' To 
change tariffs is disastrous for business, and when they are 
altered, the alteration should be made with infinite caution. 
Diminutions must be graduated just as increases must be 
graduated. 



Between England and France we need stability. We 
must be able to count not only on the stability of tariffs, 
but on the stability of the application of the tariffs. We must 

70 



A DISCIPLE OF COBDEN 

make sure that the tariffs will not be increased by adminis- 
trative regulations, introducing the very element of uncer- 
tainty they are intended to remove. The classification must 
be as stable as the tariff itself. We are perhaps on the eve of 
a reaction in England. Men, as patriotic as the Free Traders 
themselves, believe that the interest of nations demands the 
imposition of protective duties. Mr. Chamberlain has the 
gift of persuasion and the energy of the great partisan. You 
must not forget that France listened to the same arguments 
as Mr. Chamberlain is putting forward. The American 
Senate is less Radical than the most conservative of the 
Conservatives of old England. Here is Free Trade which 
Cobden thought had finally proved to be a boon to his country 
attacked by the most powerful Radical in England. In 
France men seem equally prone to change. The evil of the 
day is uncertainty, uncertainty of tariffs, uncertainty of the 
preservation of peace, financial uncertainty, general uncer- 
tainty abroad and general uncertainty at home. This 
uncertainty, I believe, is at the bottom of the depression 
which reigns everywhere at present. The remedy for this 
uncertainty is to ensure certainty. 



We have entered upon a new era of which the dominating 
principle is to ensure certainty. The Treaty of Arbitra- 
tion of October 14, 1903, has supplied a new method for 
diplomacy, a buffer to abate shocks when difficulties arise. 1 
The Treaty of Peace without war of April 8, 1904, has 
settled a large number of questions which were capable of 
producing difficulties. 2 If there are still points to be 
settled to place our two countries beyond the risk of sur- 
prises, let us settle them. England is by far the largest 
customer of France. It is a mere platitude to say that the 
prosperity of the one is necessary to the prosperity of the 
other. To buy French products the English must sell 
their products. French exports to England in fact are a 
barometer of British prosperity. The future of the English 
tariff seems to me to involve an element of uncertainty, an 
element of danger to the work we have just accomplished. 
Fortunately, we are in an era of treaties, postal and tele- 
graphic treaties, telephone treaties, transport treaties, 
treaties of commerce, treaties of navigation, industrial 

1 Seep. 235. 

2 See pp. 244 et seq. 

71 



THIRTY YEARS 

treaties, treaties of private international law, treaties of 
arbitration, treaties of peace without war. It is by- 
treaties that certainty is made to take the place of uncer- 
tainty, stability the place of instability. To be able to count 
upon a tariff is like being able to count upon the amount of 
your rent or your general expenses ; it is essential to industrial 
and commercial calculation. 



"The proposal of a treaty which will ensure stable relations 
between our two countries cannot this time come from 
England. Twice England has endeavoured to conclude such 
a treaty, twice she has failed. If a new proposal is made, it 
must come from France, and I do not know if the present 
British Government would consider itself free to settle the 
terms of a treaty on the eve of an election involving the 
present economic system of the country. If there were a 
movement in favour of such a treaty in France, I should be 
much surprised if there were not a corresponding manifesta- 
tion in England just as there was in favour of the Treaties 
which have just been concluded. We must take advantage 
of the favourable circumstances of the moment. The 
merchants and manufacturers of Great Britain came in 1900 
to Paris to show their good feeling towards the merchants 
and manufacturers of France. 1 It was the British and 
French Chambers of Commerce which drowned the clamour 
of the enemies of peace and reversed the current of feeling 
in both countries. They are the true peacemakers, and we 
hope they will join their efforts once more and give the two 
Governments the support they require in connection with a 
treaty of commerce. 

" Cobden's Treaty of i860 was followed by a period of 
extraordinary prosperity in the relations between Great 
Britain and France. It is unquestionable that a large part 
of that prosperity was due to the stability which the Treaty 
gave to our relations. If we only had the share of that 
prosperity due to stability without having many important 
diminutions of tariffs, we should place another document, 
another buffer, between us and the causes of conflict which 
we desire in Great Britain as in France to reduce to their 
lowest expression." 

Mr. Norman Angell was then the editor of the Daily 

1 See pp. 182 et seq. 
72 



A DISCIPLE OF COBDEN 

Messenger, and I owe it to him to say that his admir- 
able articles in the Messenger contributed largely to 
focus the numerous points we used to discuss for 
purposes of propaganda. The following article, on 
the above letter, for instance, will show the thoughtful 
way in which the Messenger helped the cause we had 
at heart : — 

" The letter from Mr. Thomas Barclay which appears in 
our columns to-day cannot fail to create some sensation 
among those interested in Anglo-French commercial (and 
consequently political and social) relations. Mr. Thomas 
Barclay proposes in effect to give a practical and material 
sequel to the ' entente ' which has on the sentimental side been 
so notably developed. The purely political difficulties in the 
relations between the two countries may be considered as 
settled for the moment, but the most confirmed optimist will 
hardly regard the commercial relations as happy. Neither 
country has really any security. English merchants, after 
being at great expense to work up a given trade, may suddenly 
find that trade taken away from them by an arbitrary altera- 
tion in the French tariff ; French exporters to England are 
now faced by the possibility of grave changes in the fiscal 
policy of England. Thus, commercial enterprise on both 
sides of the Channel is to a large extent paralysed. 

" Mr. Barclay has anticipated the criticism that Cobden 
succeeded in passing a Treaty which, however, did not endure. 
Apart from the fact which Mr. Barclay points out that though 
that Treaty did not last for ever, it did an enormous amount 
of good ; it had the grave defect of encountering the hostility 
of the Protectionists, then as now powerful on both sides of 
the Channel. Now Mr. Barclay hopes to act mainly through 
the Protectionists and to be assured of their co-operation in 
any commercial arrangement between France and England. 

" In the proposed Treaty the French Protectionist would 
receive a guarantee that in any revision of the English tariff, 
French products would not be discriminated against. In 
return for this, France would give an undertaking not to raise 
the duties upon English goods, and, it may be, to make certain 
reductions in the existing tariff. The Treaty, in one word, 
would represent that spirit of bargaining, the give and take, 
which is the soul of the present Fiscal Reform campaign in 

73 



THIRTY YEARS 

England, and which is calculated to win over even ' the 
cannon ball Protectionist,' as Cobden used to call him. Such 
a Treaty would proceed from the point of view of the Pro- 
tectionist and would at the same time secure the support of 
Free Traders. 

" An agreement on these lines should possess the elements 
of durability. Reconciling divergent fiscal views, it might 
well precipitate a revolution in fiscal policy, and bring to an 
end a deadlock in economic theorising which has for genera- 
tions been the despair of the political philosopher. The new 
departure therefore deserves, as it will certainly receive, the 
good-will of all who desire the prosperity of the two countries." 



74 



CHAPTER VI 

A TARIFF-MONGERING ERA 

The Treaty of Commerce negotiations in 1877 broke 
down. Those in 1881 conducted by my late friends 
Sir Charles Dilke and Mr. (afterwards Sir) C. M. 
Kennedy, whose acquaintance I made on that 
occasion, had the same fate. 

C. M. Kennedy was the ideal official who followed 
his instructions to the letter, and, unlike Sir Louis 
Mallet, who had views of his own, seems never to have 
influenced his " superiors." 

I think even Dilke had to yield, in this particular 
case, to instructions reflecting the convictions, whether 
Gladstone's or Mallet's, to which I have referred in 
the previous chapter, and whether his political master 
followed them as a man in a gig follows his horse or 
not. The other Commissioners were W. E. Baxter, 
Sir Charles Rivers Wilson (always the most careful 
and businesslike of negotiators), and Mr. (afterwards 
Sir) Joseph Crowe, the then British Commercial 
attache, a man whose world-wide experience of life 
and of all its arts and crafts made him the most 
delightful of talkers and most charming of com- 
panions to a good listener. 

* # # # # 

We made a great mistake in not accepting the 
Treaty the French offered us. The doctrinaires who 
thought that to take less than in i860 was sacrificing 
the principle of Free Trade, incurred a heavy respon- 

75 



THIRTY YEARS 

sibility for the unfortunate consequences of their 
obstinacy. 

They waited too long and missed the chance of 
profiting by Gambetta's attachment to an Anglo- 
French understanding which might have been based 
on a more or less favourable Treaty of Commerce. 
The negotiators had been appointed in May, 1881, 
and Gambetta's fall in February, 1882, shut out all 
further hope of concluding a satisfactory treaty. 

I wrote on August 26, 1883 : — 

" The want of a Treaty of Commerce between France and 
England is beginning to be keenly felt in all Anglo-French 
relations. There can be no doubt whatever that the late 
Treaty had an indirect effect in stimulating good feeling 
between the two nations, and this was one of its smallest 
virtues. England and France felt that they were allies who 
must not jeopardise an old-standing friendship by impatience 
in judging each other's acts. They spared each other's 
susceptibilities, as old friends are wont to do, and if hitches 
occurred they did their best to remove them with the least 
possible friction. But all this is changed now. A rupture 
has taken place. We are no longer allied, but trade with 
each other at arm's length. Trifling misunderstandings are 
immediately fanned into burning questions, and not an 
opportunity is lost of recapitulating our respective grievances. 
We are now, like old friends turned foes, bitterer in proportion 
as our friendship was the closer. . . . The French are a 
sensitive and may not be a wise people, but they are a great 
European Power and a great industrial and consuming nation, 
and it is to be regretted that our relations with them are in 
a state of tension which is not only socially uncomfortable 
but causes political uneasiness, unsettles trade, and prevents 
the recovery from the crisis of last year. A return to the 
entente cordiale is the wish of every Englishman here, and this 
can only be effected now by the conclusion of a new Treaty 
of Commerce." 

Again on March 28, 1884, I wrote : — 

" It is decidedly a pity that we did not accept the Treaty 
offered us at the last negotiations. It would not have been 

76 



A TAR1FF-M0NGERING ERA 

a step backwards, as was supposed ; for the present tariff, 
taken generally, is not a step backwards, and the Treaty 
offered to England was a better one. It was a blunder on 
our part not to accept it ; it will be long before we shall get 
as good terms again. France is not becoming more favourable 
to Free Trade ; she is becoming more and more Protectionist. 
The President of the Republic remarked some days ago to 
an Englishman : 1 ' You Englishmen do not realise French 
feelings on this subject. The French have a sincere con- 
viction that foreign competition is destroying their manu- 
factures. They have a pride in their industries, and will make 
a sacrifice to keep them afloat. Whether they are right or not 
is not the question. Such is their conviction, and they will 
act accordingly.' The present state of trade will not lead them 
to amend their opinions, and I fear that an acceptable treaty 
with France is not to be thought of. As things are, England, 
by the bounty of the French Parliament, has the benefit of 
the most-favoured-nation terms, but any day an agitation 
may be set on foot to withdraw them from her ; so it is well 
to remember the President's words. He is a man who has 
closely watched the character of his countrymen. ' The 
French,' he added, ' are not a wise people ; like all southern 
peoples, they are the slaves of their feelings and amour- 
propre.' " 

# # * # # 

From May 25, 1882, till now we have, nevertheless, 
enjoyed the most-favoured-nation treatment and had 
the benefit of all the reductions of duty any other 
Power, with its tariff artillery, has been too able to 
coerce France into granting. Meanwhile France was 
transforming her system. In 1881, while negotiations 
with England were proceeding, the reaction began 
with the imposition of duties for the protection of 
agricultural produce (mainly against the competition 
of American grain) and the adoption for manufactured 
goods of specific in the place of ad valorem duties. 
New treaties, however, were concluded and the treaty 
system was retained till 1892. In the interval the 

I was the PJnelishman and the President was M. Grevy. 

77 



THIRTY YEARS 

duties on agricultural produce did not keep out the 
foreigner to the extent expected, and that miracle for 
Protectionists occurred, which was destined to repeat 
itself again and again, of the rise in price of domestic 
produce, rendered possible by the protective duty on 
the same article from abroad, eventually paying the 
duty, or so materially helping to pay it, that after a 
time the foreigner comes in again as before. 



Then came the tariff war with Italy. In 1878 the 
Italians had preceded the French in the adoption of 
specific for ad valorem duties, and in 1883 and 1887 
began the construction of what began to be called the 
" tariff wall " — that is, the system of a general tariff 
operating as a rampart which can only be scaled by 
concessions, sufficient to purchase substitution for it 
of a lower conventional tariff. In 1887 the Franco- 
Italian negotiations were broken off; both pulled 
down their conventional ladders, and thenceforward 
presented the bare unscalable walls of their general 
tariffs to each other's produce. 

The tariff war thus begun became one of great 
bitterness. The Italian general tariff on the whole 
was higher than that of France. The French a year 
later raised theirs against Italy. Italy immediately 
retaliated by raising hers to a still higher scale against 
France. At length in 1892 the parties came to see 
the transcendant folly of a war which was as advan- 
tageous to outsiders as it was disastrous to the 
immediate parties. France then took off the excess 
duties and Italy was placed under the regime of 
the ordinary general tariff pending an arrangement 
which was concluded in 1897. 

78 



A TARIFF-MONGERING ERA 

During the eleven years war the exports of 
Italian goods into France had fallen from some 
300,ooo,ooof. to about a third of this sum and of 
French goods into Italy from some 200,ooo,ooof. 
to less than half this sum. Other countries had 
meanwhile filled the vacancy. It is only recently 
that the old figures of the eighties have again 
been reached. 



In 1892 the French tariff was again overhauled and 
the regime of treaties of commerce thrown over 
altogether by the adoption, alongside the general 
tariff, of an invariable minimum tariff in the place of 
the conventional tariff, which had been the tariff of 
lowest treaty duties resulting from application of the 
most-favoured-nation clause. All the treaties were 
now denounced, and on January 31, 1892, when 
all but one of them would be exhausted, the 
minimum tariff was timed to come into operation. 
The one exception was the Franco-Swiss Treaty, 
which it was hoped would be cancelled by consent. 
The arrangement entered into by the French Govern- 
ment, however, was rejected by Parliament owing 
to the opposition of the silk, cotton, and cattle 
interests, and a tariff war with Switzerland was 
added to the one already raging with Italy. The 
Swiss quadrupled their duties on French wines, 
multiplied those on silks by 25, and France in 1895, 
for the sake of peace, had to reduce twenty-nine items 
of her minimum tariff, and a treaty of commerce, after 
all, had been necessary to preserve a market which was 
being lost still more rapidly than that of Italy. In 
three years the Swiss exports to France had fallen 

79 



THIRTY YEARS 

over 30 per cent, and French exports to Switzerland 
in a still larger proportion. 

These examples of tariff wars suffice to show that in 
the end the parties, in spite of their lost trade, have 
to return to the status quo ante with the superadded 
task to achieve of displacing those who during the 
struggle have taken their place. 

The tariff of 1892 raised the number of items and 
the amounts of the duties, with the financial result 
not of an increase but of a loss of receipts. The 
amount collected in 1893 was 492,ooo,ooof. In 1904 
it had fallen to 379,ooo,ooof. ! 

In 1 895 the famous lot du cadenas gave the Govern- 
ment the right to put in force any Government Bill 
for the increase of duties before its adoption by the 
Legislature, a system right enough in principle for the 
prevention of fraud, but obviously in practice pledging 
Parliament to changes which may involve a disastrous 
element of uncertainty, as can be seen from the fact 
that between 1895 and 1908 the Government made 
alterations in the tariff under thirty-seven Acts of 
Parliament. In spite of all this tariff-mongering, the 
tariff has never given satisfaction. How could it ? 
In every case the increased price necessarily sooner or 
later pays or helps to pay the increase of duty. It 
reminds one of Alice's tea-party in Wonderland, and 
to my mind, after the experience of France, its absurd 
futility is equally obvious. 

In 1 910 the tariff-mongers grew tired of mere 
tinkering and demanded a complete revision of the 
tariff because it no longer kept the foreigner out. 
French industries, in spite of almost prohibitive 
duties, were suffering as badly as ever. The Tariff; 

80 



A TARIFF-MONGERING ERA 

of 1892 was eighteen years old, a point which seemed 
to convey some argument per se. New industries had 
grown up which were also entitled to adequate pro- 
tection. And, lastly, the general tariff was not high 
enough for retaliation purposes. 

Now began a new disguised tariff war by the 
multiplying of categories to strike at special articles 
from one country while letting in those of another. 
In this new tariff England was treated better than 
some other countries, though badly enough. These 
categories or " specifications " number some 1,500, 
and the difference between the general and the 
minimum tariff has been raised to an average of 
50 per cent. Fear of reprisals, however, led Parlia- 
ment to agree to a clause authorising the Government 
to continue to apply the 1892 Tariff to countries which 
did not differentiate against France. 

To sum up, my experience of the working of 
Protection in France amounts to this — that its 
punitive qualities have produced no results ; that it 
has failed to promote the prosperity of French manu- 
factures ; that, wherever it has been used for coercive 
purposes, it has entailed loss to France ; that it has 
necessarily been increased from time to time to fulfil 
its purpose of " keeping the foreigner out " ; and that 
its final consequence can only be industrial disaster 
and a reversal of the present regime to save the 
industries of the country from their increasing langour 
and French export trade from being driven out of the 
chief markets of the world. 



T.Y. 8l 



CHAPTER VII 

9T0RMS AHEAD 

Gambetta's fall and the British occupation of Egypt 
were the starting-point of an era of strained Anglo- 
French relations. It is idle at the present day to 
speculate on what would ultimately have been French 
policy towards this country, had Gambetta lived. Yet, 
so profound was my conviction at the time of Gam- 
betta's foresight and attachment to peace, that I 
cannot help indulging the fancy, futile as it may be, 
that those who thwarted the grand ministere took an 
entirely mistaken view of the national interest. 

Gambetta, moreover, was the one man whose 
antecedents might have warranted his entertaining a 
policy of conciliation towards Germany, and, paradox 
as it may seem, that which seems impossible to-day 
was at any rate feasable thirty years ago. His 
attachment to friendship with England and his con- 
ciliatory attitude towards Germany, in fact, might 
have saved Europe from an antagonism among the 
three great Powers of the West which has cost them 
dearly without any corresponding benefit, moral or 
or material to any of them. 

In 1883 M. Ferry inaugurated his policy of diverting 
public attention from European antagonisms to 
colonial expansion. Though the campaigns in Mada- 
gascar, Tongking, and China kept French public 
opinion fully occupied during the next three years, 

82 



STORMS AHEAD 

this colonial activity, on the other hand, excited the 
alarm of the Germans and Italians, who distrusted the 
French Government after the invasion of Tunis and 
its practical annexation, and they, too, proceeded to 
annex every scrap of territory they could lay hands on 
with impunity. This feverish scramble had as little 
common sense behind it as any financial boom. It was 
a saisir qui pent, as somebody at the time called it. 

Even the sober and thoughtful M. Ribot was 
dragged into this unseemly land-grabbing policy. 

The indiscretion of a French consul in Burmah, who 

told his Italian colleague that M. Ribot (then Minister 

of Foreign Affairs) was making preparations for an 

extension of the French Asiatic ventures to Burmah, 

information which in turn was imparted to his British 

colleague, who forthwith ciphered it to Calcutta, led 

Lord Dufferin without a moment's hesitation to take 

the necessary steps to forestall the French. Hence 

the annexation on the flimsiest of grounds of that 

important dependency to our Asiatic possessions. 
* * # # # 

I frankly confess I am not patriot enough to have 
any sympathy with these annexations of territory 
not susceptible of European colonization. Much as 
one must admire the work of the toiling European 
civil servants who give their lives to good and useful 
administrative work, one ought to have nothing but 
loathing for the frivolous pretexts employed to justify 
the barbarous slaughter of harmless people who rise to 
defend their homes against invaders, and the hypo- 
critical pretences put forward as a reason for depriving 
them of their independence. 

In the case of an over-peopled country there is some 
sort of excuse of self-preservation for the annexing of 

83 G 2 



THIRTY YEARS 

territory. To annex merely to find employment for 
an over-supply of candidates for the civil service is 
hardly fair to the rest of mankind. 

The retribution which history generally has in store 
for the crimes of nations is already beginning to gather 
on the horizon of the Far East. Those who have 
not the power to defend the possessions they have 
wrested from the weaker hands of native Asiatic 
communities may yet have to surrender them to 
conquering Powers who have borrowed Western 
methods of aggrandisment and with which a future 
generation will have to reckon. 

In 1894, when advising the Japanese Government 
on the law affecting the Inland Sea of Japan, I made 
the acquaintance of many Japanese lawyers, diplo- 
matists, and scholars with some of whom I have 
remained on terms of friendship. From intercourse 
with them I gathered the impression that if Japanese 
naval armaments had been equal to the occasion in 
1898, the United States would have been confronted 
with an Asiatic Monroe doctrine which had already 
begun to take shape in Japanese political opinion. 
# # # # # 

A halt in the French colonial expansion policy 
followed the Chinese campaign in 1885. That futile 
and spendthrift policy, which involved the deporting 
of conscript soldiers to murderous climates, caused 
such an intensity of ill-feeling against the Repub- 
lican Government, that no more subtle reasons 
than this suffice to account for the anti-Republican 
revulsion shown at the election of October, 1885, when 
a Republican majority of some 800,000 out of the 

84 



STORMS AHEAD 

8,000,000 electors who voted was all that separated 
the existing regime from reaction. 

For all practical purposes the policy of M. Ferry 
was the reverse of M. Gambetta's. His reputation, 
in the hands of the historians, has come down to 
posterity as that of a great statesman, and he did at 
first dazzle the unwary, though at the time, as I well 
remember, more cautious men deprecated a policy 
which excited the jealousy of other States, and which 
embodied principles of the Csesarism which had been 
fatal to the late Empire. 

I heard cautious Americans years afterwards in the 
same way express apprehension as to the ultimate 
consequences of the outburst of Csesarism which 
ravaged American democracy in 1898. The ultimate 
results in both cases may be the same. Meanwhile 
a wiser French democracy had given the political 
leaders such a warning that for a few years they had 
to turn their attention again exclusively to home 
affairs. 

Just as in the last few years the German Colonial 
Party has been exciting irritation against England on 
the ground that she places obstacles in the way of 
German colonial ventures, in 1883 the French colonial 
expansionists were exciting French public opinion 
against her on the same ground. Wherever the 
French pioneers penetrated they found the English 
and English interests already installed, and instead 
of realising that the grievance, if any, was more 
justified on the part of those who had already 
established themselves on the spot than on the part 
of the new-comers, they resented the resentment of 
those whom their own Government, on grounds of 
general policy, made no attempt to treat as prior 

85 



THIRTY YEARS 

occupants and whom it sacrificed to the colonial 
expansion of other European States. 

# # # # # 

In the fervour of my still untamed British instincts 
I was at the time most indignant at the French 
methods which went by the name of colonization. In 
an article from Paris published on July 29, 1883, I 
wrote : — 

" The tension existing between England and France is the 
chief preoccupation here. It is difficult to understand the 
present French irritation against the English, and their 
quarrelsomeness can only be ascribed to an endeavour, as 
it were, after a busy life to settle down to a dolce far 
niente contrary to the nature produced by a life's activity. 
The French, or at least French Governments, have always 
been meddlesome, and always prone to interfere with other 
people's affairs. Whether a Kingdom, or a Republic or an 
Empire, they have always been given to a spirited foreign 
policy of some kind, and a home policy, unless it is icono- 
clastic and violent, finds little countenance among the more 
energetic spirits of the country. The French Criminal Code 
and criminal justice urgently call for reform, municipal 
taxation is perfectly barbarous, patent law, bills of exchange 
law, and mercantile law generally, are far behind the require- 
ments of the age, and the legal position of women is contrary 
to the common sense of the nation. These and other reforms 
are demanded on every hand, but Parliaments and Govern- 
ments have no time for these trifles. Now that clerical 
persecution has come to a standstill they have gone in for 
a spirited colonial policy, which means shooting natives, 
cannonading native villages, planting the French flag some- 
where or other, leaving a garrison in charge, appointing some 
officer to organise a civil service, and calling the new posses- 
sion a colony — a colony with everything but colonists. The 
spirit is always the same, and now instead of interfering with 
her near neighbours, who are all strong enough to look after 
themselves, France has taken to interfering with native 
communities in far distant parts. It must not, however, 
be thought that all Frenchmen approve of this so-called 
colonial policy. Many enlightened men strongly disapprove 

86 



STORMS AHEAD 

of it, and at a recent meeting of the Paris Political Economy- 
Society, a Free Trade association of which M. Leon Say is 
president, more than one voice was raised to point out that 
real and valuable colonies are not created by soldiers and 
firearms, but by horny-handed settlers, capable of turning a 
virgin soil to account. 

" But bad as the means by which the so-called French 
colonies are created, the mode of treating colonists when 
attracted thither is almost worse. All initiative, all self- 
government, all enterprise is ' administered ' out of them. A 
colony is no sooner created than a complete, fully-fledged 
' administration ' is set going. M. Boucherot, at the above- 
mentioned meeting of the Political Economy Society, described 
the sort of encouragement this administration gives to any 
would-be colonist who ventures to try his fortune in the new 
country in, as nearly as I recollect, the following terms : — 
' We have been now some twenty years in possession of 
Cochin-China, and what have we made of it ? Well, it was a 
new country ; the Government pompously made known that 
concessions of land were to be given, and some would-be 
colonists with small capital, attracted by encouraging prospects 
flaunted before them, went out. " You are welcome to them," 
said the administration. " We should like to settle here," 
said the colonist. " Not there ! " replied the administration. 
" We are going to build the hospital there." " Then here, 
this would suit us ? " " No, not there either ; this is the spot 
for the church." " Well, down there." " Oh, no, the Pro- 
testant chapel will be erected there." " Then let us settle on 
the other side ? " " Nor there either ; that is the place where 
the gendarmerie will stand." " What, gendarmes ; but there 
are no people here yet to be looked after." " Foresight ! " 
says the administration. At length the colonists get their 
concession. Some time afterwards one of them, conveying 
his corn to the mill, is arrested by a gendarme for not having 
his name on the cart ! Colonists in fact are " administrated " 
to exasperation, as at home.' Yet M. Boucherot maintains 
that there is no lack of Frenchmen, which personally I doubt, 
who desire to seek their fortunes in the colonies. All he says 
is that there is no encouragement for them to go to the French 
colonies." 



This discouraging attitude as regards colonial 
enterprise has not entirely died out, as the following 

87 



THIRTY YEARS 

amusing little incident bears witness. One day at a 
Cabinet Council during M. Clemenceau's Administra- 
tion (1908) the Colonial Minister, M. Millies-Lacroix, 
was explaining why he would not grant a railway con- 
cession in one of the colonies to a certain applicant. 
" The man is a simple adventurer," he said. " Why, 
he has never even been there." " Quite right, mon 
cher ministry" said the Prime Minister. " Still 
Columbus got his ship, you know." 

The election of 188 1, in which the Republican forces 
were led by Gambetta, had given a Republican 
majority of 5,128,000 against a reactionary minority 
of 1,789,000. The election of 1885 gave the Re- 
publicans 4,300,000 and the reactionaries 3,500,000 
votes. 

The great industrial districts of the Nord and Pas 
de Calais, which had returned Republican majorities 
in 1 88 1, threw every Republican out. 1 Men of the 
value of MM. Ribot, Germain, Ranc, and Deves were 
ruthlessly defeated. 

Things looked so gloomy for the Republic that the 
wiser and older reactionaries like the Due de Broglie 
counselled their followers to avoid any policy involving 
an immediate alteration of the form of government. 

The reaction, in fact, was a much more serious 
matter than was at first realized. The new Parlia- 
ment had no working majority 2 with which by useful 

1 The reactionaries carried twenty-six departments entirely. 

3 The reactionary party was composed of 65 Bonapartists, 73 Monarchists 
and 64 nondescript reactionaries. The Republican party was divided 
between 107 Radicals and 275 Opportunists, and of these latter all who 
could be counted upon as homogeneous were about 200. The reactionary 
block counted 202 votes. Legislation by the Opportunist party could 
therefore only be carried by an alliance with the Radicals or with the 
co-operation of the reactionaries. 



STORMS AHEAD 

and popular legislation to redeem the mistakes of the 

previous Parliament, and then began that period of 

national agony which, starting with the Boulangist 

conspiracy, developed into the nationalist movement 

and which did not die out till after the " pardon " of 

Dreyfus. 

# * # # * 

As will be seen, the colonial expansion mania was 
again destined in a few years to involve France in 
dangerous complications with Great Britain and later 
and more recently in equally, if not still more, 
dangerous complications with Germany. As regards 
the latter country, the end of German colonial com- 
petition seems in sight. Not only the Emperor, but 
the responsible part of the German nation, those who 
have little time for political agitation, but who at the 
polls sometimes produce a volcanic effect among 
politicians, too busy with themselves to hear the 
growlings in the electoral substrata, are beginning to 
awaken to the futility of a colonial policy which, 
instead of following the natural roads of trade, tries to 
drag trade along with it into speculations as wild as its 
own schemes. In France, though the name of Ferry 
became execrated and he never regained his popu- 
larity, the mischievous policy he had started accumu- 
lated half-fulfilled obligations, excited the convoitises of 
other nations, and entangled his country in the meshes 
of a network of colonial venture for which it has paid 
and is still paying dearly. With every lull in this brain- 
storm of colonial expansion, the old anti-German feel- 
ing was revived by the jingoes who were afterwards 
to be led by General Boulanger, and who were 
hostile to this frittering away of the national energy 
in vainglorious expansion to the detriment of the 

8 9 



THIRTY YEARS 

truly glorious cause, as they regarded it, of the 
revanche. 

On August 29, 1884, I wrote : — 

" If it were not too serious a matter to be laughable, 
the present political state of things in France might afford 
much food for amusement. Political neutrality is a state of 
feeling unknown in this country, where everybody is more 
or less militant, and the idea that England is a friendly 
Power having been consigned to the things of the past, French- 
men are now puzzled how to replace her as a friend and how to 
deal with Germany, from whom they have momentarily 
withdrawn their spite. To be at daggers drawn with the two 
mightiest Powers in Europe is manifestly ridiculous ; to fall 
into the arms of Germany is not an embrace that is either 
politic or agreeable ; and to be neutral and passive is unnatural. 
So everybody is in perplexity." 



This state of alternate anti-English and anti- 
German explosion continued down till it took an 
exceedingly earnest turn in April, 1887, when the 
Schnoebele incident suddenly plunged all Europe into 
the anxieties of a possible war. Schnoebele was a 
French police commissary who, having been invited 
by his German colleague to cross the frontier for the 
purpose of conferring with him on an administrative 
matter, was arrested on the ground of being concerned 
in treasonable proceedings on German soil. The 
incident in itself was of no particular importance, 
and it was terminated by his release on the ground 
that he was covered by a safe-conduct in the invita- 
tion to cross the frontier. The French Government 
removed him to a post at Laon and there the matter 
in itself ended. 

But in the middle of the Diplomatic negotiations 
concerning it, General Boulanger, who was Minister 
of War, brought in a bill to mobilise an army corps, 

90 



STORMS AHEAD 

and this provoked counter-manifestations in Germany. 
A bellicose speech by Prince Bismarck led to a declara- 
tion by General Boulanger in May, while a cabinet 
crisis was pending, that if he remained in office he 
would continue his mobilisation scheme, whatever 
Germany might say, and not relax his preparations to 
avert any humiliation by that country. M. Rouvier, 
as the General knew, had no intention of asking him 
to continue in office ! A deep sense of humiliation 
did result from the haughty indifference to French 
feeling shown in the German treatment of the incident. 

Among the illuminating letters which Lord Newton 
cites in his memoir on Lord Lyons, who was still at 
that time our Ambassador, is one which is particularly 
interesting on account of the answer it elicited from 
Lord Salisbury. 

On July 15, 1887, Lord Lyons wrote : — 

" Ill-will between France and Germany seems to be on the 
increase. It looks as if the Germans would really be glad 
to find a fair pretext for going to war with France. On the 
other hand, Boulangism, which is now the French term for 
Jingoism, spreads, especially amongst the reckless Radicals and 
enemies of the Ministry. And even among the better classes 
warlike language and, to some degree, a warlike spirit grows 
up with a new generation which has no practical acquaintance 
with war. Abject fear of the German armies is being suc- 
ceeded by overweening confidence in themselves." 1 

Lord Salisbury, on July 20, replied : — 

" I am afraid the temper of the French will not make the 
settlement of the Egyptian question more easy. I do not now 
see how we are to devise any middle terms that will satisfy them. 
We cannot leave the Khedive to take his chance of foreign 
attack, or native riot. The French refuse to let us exercise the 
necessary powers of defence, unless we do it by continuing our 
military occupation. I see nothing for it but to sit still and 
drift awhile ; a little further on in the history of Europe the 

1 Newton, " Lord Lyons " (London, Edward Arnold), Vol. II., p. 410. 

9 1 



THIRTY YEARS 

conditions may be changed, and we may be able to get some 
agreement arrived at which will justify evacuation. Our 
relations with France are not pleasant at present. There are 
five or six different places where we are at odds — 

" I. She has destroyed the Convention at Constantinople. 

" 2. She will allow no Press law to pass. 

" 3. She is trying to back out of the arrangement on the 
Somali coast. 

" 4. She still occupies the New Hebrides. 

" 5. She destroys our fishing tackle, etc. 

" 6. She is trying to elbow us out of at least two unpro- 
nounceable places on the West Coast of Africa. 

" Can you wonder that there is, to my eyes, a silver lining 
even to the great black cloud of a Franco-German war ? " 

Several French politicians at the time suspected the 
Schnoebele incident of being a calculated experiment 
to gauge the depth of the anti-German feeling in 
France, a means of testing by an incident, which 
could be closed at any time by a mere apology without 
any shock to German national dignity, whether 
Boulanger had a sufficient following in public opinion 
to make Boulangism a real danger to peace. 

At this time France was represented in England by 
M. William Waddington. It was difficult to remem- 
ber when talking to M. Waddington that he was not 
an Englishman, and sometimes, I have heard, British 
statesmen overstepped the boundaries of diplomatic 
reticence and forgot that he owed allegiance to a 
foreign State which on its side was treating this 
country at arm's length. More than once the French 
Government seemed too well informed about British 
visees and pourparlers with other States. At the 
dinner-table and in the smoking-room of a country 
house a foreign accent is a warning. 

The Waddingtons are among the leading Norman 
families of to-day. William Waddington, like M. 

92 



STORMS AHEAD 

Barthelemy St. Hilaire, was not only a distinguished 
scholar, but played an important part in politics in 
the early years of the Republic. After serving his 
country as Minister of Public Instruction under 
Dufaure in 1 871-3 and in 1876, and again under 
Jules Simon in 1877, and under Dufaure again as 
Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1878, and as Prime 
Minister in 1880, he was appointed in July, 1883, as 
Ambassador to the Court of St. James, where he was 
to all intents and purposes socially an Englishman. 
There he remained for ten years, during which he was 
frequently accused of being " vendu aux anglais." 
He took the charge with equanimity, but his English 
origin forbade his manifesting any strong advocacy 
of a better Anglo-French understanding. 

Richard Waddington, William's brother, was, if 
anything, still more English. He had served for ten 
years in the English army, and for a time had been 
stationed at Malta. He used to speak French with a 
slight English accent. Curiously enough, while to 
an Englishman an English accent in French is un- 
pleasant, to a Frenchman it is agreeable and dis- 
tinguished, so much so that French dandies imitate 
it. Hence M. Richard Waddington's accent, when 
addressing the Chamber of Deputies, only seemed a 
rather attractive affectation. In those days it would 
have been imprudent to brag of one's English origin. 
To-day it is different, and I can tell the story of the 
origin of the Waddingtons without committing any 
indiscretion or jeopardising M. Richard Wadding- 
ton's senatorial seat. 

Their great-grandfather, a Mr. Sykes, settled as a 
jeweller in Paris between 1770 and 1780. In 1792 he 
had amassed enough means to build a cotton mill at 

93 



THIRTY YEARS 

St. Remy-sur-Adre. Mr. Sykes claimed descent from 
Richard Pendrell, who hid Charles II. in the oak after 
the battle of Worcester, but he was not himself born 
or bred in England ; in both these respects he was a 
Dutchman. 

Sykes had an only daughter who married a Mr. 
William Waddington, of London, who settled in 
France and joined his father-in-law in business in 
1816. His eldest grandson, William Waddington, 
the ambassador, was called after him. 

The cotton mills and the family have grown in 
importance and prestige, andM. Richard Waddington. 
senator, is the leading man in the Norman capital, a 
strong protectionist, which means an ardent champion 
of high duties on Lancashire yarns and textiles. This, 
however, does not prevent him from being a charming 
host in his tranquil country seat among the hills, 
scarcely more than a stroll from the busy valley with 
its clattering mills and all the smoke and dust and din 
of a factory town, yet dominating a wide expanse of 
that reposeful Norman scenery, which made Freeman 
(I think it was) say that he felt there so much at home 
that he resented the natives speaking a foreign 
language in a land so English. 



94 



CHAPTER VIII 



At the beginning of April, 1889, my wife and I were 
staying at the Hotel de Saxe at Brussels, whither we 
had gone to hear the famous Viennese singer Materna, 
whose rendering of Brunhilde in the " Walkiire," as 
a great musical event within reach by a six hours' 
journey, had brought many amateurs from Paris. I 
had long since given up my post of correspondent 
of The Times, though I remained one of its occasional 
contributors. We had just returned from the Monnaie, 
and were discussing with some friends the curious effect 
of hearing Materna sing in German, while all the other 
singers sang in French, when the hotel manager asked 
to speak to me. Boulanger, he said, had telegraphed 
him to reserve rooms and was arriving about midnight. 
The news was indeed astounding. That he should 
leave Paris, in the midst of his campaign, betokened 
some new and startling strategy on one side or the 
other. I waited to see him arrive, but the hall porter 
came back from the station to say that Boulanger, on 
learning that the landlord of the Hotel de Saxe was a 
German, had gone to the Hotel Mengelle, which 
belonged to a Belgian ! 

I did not know the General personally, but once a 
journalist always a journalist, and I determined, all 
the same, to call on him the next morning. Anyhow 
I knew many of his friends well. 

# # # # # 

General Boulanger was a new type of French 

95 



THIRTY YEARS 

adventurer — neither a soldier of fortune sprung from 
the ranks, nor an indigent aristocrat. Nothing about 
him reminded you of the gallant officer or dashing 
commander. His swollen eyes, somewhat bald head, 
unexpressive countenance, and slight stoop were 
suggestive rather of the overworked editor of a 
morning paper, while his square figure stamped him 
as a son of that bourgeois class which produces the 
characteristic Frenchman of the latter-day Republic. 
He talked sullenly, as if he were on the defensive, and 
with that tendency to exaggerate which marks a 
man's doubt of his own qualifications. I should have 
summed up Boulanger as timid, boastful, sly, and 
cabotin. 

How he got to the front with the poor qualities he 
was ultimately revealed to possess, is only explicable 
by the fact that he knew and remained among the 
class from which he had sprung and was not of the 
class from which, as a rule, officers in the army are 
recruited. He was a Republican, guaranteed, as it 
were, by his class affiliation, whereas the environment 
of most of the commanding officers was reactionary 
and suspect. 



Boulanger's father was an homme d'affaires in the 
Rue Feydeau. At least, so I was told by Hy, the well- 
known barber on the Boulevard des Italiens, who had 
many interesting stories to tell of his old customers in 
the time of the Empire. Le pere Boulanger, who was 
one of them, he told me, was a tremendous talker and 
very proud of his son, about whom he never lost an 
opportunity of discoursing with other customers 
waiting their turn. 

96 



BOULANGER'S BLUFF 

Hy's shop or shed occupied the little courtyard of 
25, Boulevard des Italiens, where the British Chamber 
of Commerce and Potel and Chabot's famous shop 
used to be located. In pre-Republican times, Hy 
told me, every self-respecting man used his hair as 
a decoration, and cultivated a moustache, which was 
a work of art. Under the Republic men had grown 
less careful of their persons, cut their hair short, and 
let their beards grow anyhow or reduced them to an 
inartistic moustache, if they did not cut them off alto- 
gether ; and the skilled barber, V artiste, as Hy called 
him, had lost his vocation. In the good old time the 
barber's shop was like a club-house. The " clients " 
knew each other, and the barber was a sort of gazette 
who collected the news as it came in and retailed it 

as a part of his business. 

# # # # * 

But to return to Boulanger : he was not equal to 
the task he had undertaken, that of upsetting the then 
Republic, and instead of becoming the master of 
the situation, he became the mere tool of cleverer 
conspirators. The dowager Duchesse d'Uzes was 
understood to have given him two millions of francs 
without any expectation that he would be successful, 
but in order, as she said, " to rattle up the pots and 
pans in the Republican cuisine and cause a general 
stir which would bring merit to the surface and send 
down to the dregs, to which they belonged, a crowd of 
hungry place-seekers and tenth-rate adventurers." 
Others helped him with money in the hope that the 
collapse of the Republic would give the other regime- 
gamblers a chance. 

Boulanger started off with every trump card in his 
hand. The enemies of the Republic, after fighting 

T.Y. 97 H 



THIRTf YEARS 

each other and enabling the Republic to become 
firmly established through" their ungovernable jealousy 
of each other, had coalesced. They had agreed at 
length to abandon warfare against each other until 
the Republic was destroyed. Boulanger led the 
attack in the name of the plebiscitaires, those who held 
that a system somewhat analogous to that of the 
United States should be adopted in France ; he 
expected to be appointed president under the first 
plebiscite. '** 

A couple of days before, I had been in the midst of 
the commotion in Paris and seen with my own eyes 
the anxiety, almost dread, of the Republican poli- 
ticians that the Republicans might not be equal to 
this new coalition of its enemies. Boulanger's sudden 
appearance at Brussels was therefore an event of 
enormous significance. Several of his political staff 
had come in by the night train and were already in 
consultation with him when I called. 

The General took me into a large adjoining bedroom, 
where he walked up and down nervously and talked 
to me. I cannot describe the visit better than by 
quoting the passage of the article on the subject which 
I sent to The Times, 1 and which gave an instantaneous 
record of my then impressions of the man and his 

object. 

" Brussels, April 4, 1889. 
" The sudden irruption of General Boulanger in the 
Belgian capital has caused the greatest excitement here. 
If you overhear a conversation in the streets or in the hotel, 
meet a friend, or have any other opportunity of noting public 
feeling, it is invariably one of amazement that events have been 
so quietly passing in France which warranted such a tremendous 
step. Why should the General have found it dangerous to 
remain on the territory of the Republic ? We have an answer 

1 See The Times, April 8, 1889. 

98 ' 



BOULANGER'S BLUFF 

to this query from one whose exaggerations are so notorious 
that his readers are usually inclined to believe the opposite of 
his statements, whatever they are. M. Rochefort, who has also 
come to Belgium as a sort of minister in waiting on the General 
on behalf of his party, accuses the Government point blank 
of having projected the General's assassination. The General, 
according to him, fled to save his life. 

" In presence of the conflicting rumours afloat and general 
curiosity to know the truth, I took advantage of being the 
General's neighbour to invoke common friendships and beg 
an audience, which was very courteously granted without 
delay. I had never seen the General in person before, and 
may mention for the instruction of those who are in the same 
position as myself that his portraits do not represent his hair as 
turning grey or his back as beginning to bend under the cares 
of politics, and his approach as somewhat cold and even 
slightly nervous. After a few minutes' conversation, however, 
his reserve disappears, his manner becomes cordial, his features 
animated, and your impressions more favourable generally. 
His voice is pleasant and strong, and I should say from the 
friendly though authoritative way in which he treats those who 
have followed him into exile that he may even have a good 
deal of that social fascination which a pretender to power needs 
to keep his little Hat major well in hand. I said : 

" ' General, you are aware that M. Rochefort states that you 
have left France for fear of assassination. You do not mention 
any such ground in your manifesto, so I suppose it does not 
repose on a strong foundation ? ' 

" ' That I do not know,' replied the General hurriedly ; 
■ of course M. Rochefort may have his reasons for saying so. 
Personally I do not think there was any such project, and my 
own immediate reason for leaving France was not fear of 
assassination.' 

" ' In your manifesto you say you have left France to avoid 
appearing before the Senate ? ' 

" ' Certainly ! You do not suppose I would allow myself 
to be tried by a tribunal composed of my openly-avowed 
antagonists ? ' 

" ' But your leaving France before even you were indicted 
would imply that you feared some immediate personal risk.' 

" ' Quite so ! I was promised by one of those who were 
bound to be au courant of the Government's projects (inas- 
much as he was destined to be one of the instruments of 
the execution of its orders), that he would warn me in 

99 H 2 



THIRTY YEARS 

good time, and he kept his word, and told me orders had 
been given for my arrest as I came out of the Chamber of 
Deputies. I did not go to the Chamber of Deputies, and 
took care to place myself beyond the reach of the Govern- 
ment's agents.' 

" ' What was the Government's object in seeking to make 
a martyr of you ? ' 

" ' Their system was ingenious enough. Once within the 
four walls of a cell, they would have employed devices to 
keep me under detention. I should have been prevented 
from communicating with my friends, from managing my 
party, and they would probably by their stratagems have 
kept me under lock and key till after the general election.' 

" ' You think they could have strained the law to that 
extent ? ' 

" ' I have no doubt of it. My friends felt the danger, and 
have been advising me to put the frontier between me and the 
Government for some days past.' 

" ' Would you go back to France before the elections if you 
were to appear before the ordinary Courts, as you seem to 
imply in your manifesto ? ' 

" ' Yes, but of course only to appear at the trial. I have 
done nothing, nothing whatsoever which is contrary to the 
laws of the land. My conscience and my acts from first to 
last are irreproachable, but I will only appear before the 
Common Law Courts — that is, before the Court of Assize with 
a jury, or before the Court of Appeal. You may not know 
that as Grand Officer of the Ltgion d'Honneur I am entitled 
to demand trial before the Court of Appeal as distingushed 
from the Tribunal Correctionel.' 

" ' How did it come about that the Government let you slip 
after they had resolved on your arrest ? ' 

" General Boulanger paused a moment, walked up and 
down the room, and smiled. 

" ' Bouchez' resignation upset their calculations.' x 

"'How so?' 

" ' Bouchez was appointed under, if not by, M. Grevy. It 
is possible that he took counsel of his patron. I was Minister 
of War at the time.' 

" < Well ? ' 

" ' Well, a little time elapsed before his successor was 
appointed, and there was nobody to sign the warrant of arrest.' 

1 M. Bouchez was public procurator of the Court of Appeal. 
IOO 



BOULANGER'S BLUFF 

" ' And during the interval your movements could not be 
interfered with ? ' 

" ' Just so.' 

" ' Do you think M. Grevy advised M. Bouchez in your 
interest ? ' 

" ' No, I don't think so. He may not have liked the pro- 
cedure, and perhaps was not sorry that his own foes should 
be defeated.' 

" ' Then M. Bouchez' political feelings, you think, had 
nothing to do with his resignation ? ' 

" ' No.' 

" ' Will not your absence from France affect the result of 
the elections ? ' 

" ' I don't think so. The result is certain already. And 
the Government's action, when the facts are known, will 
operate against it. I can control my party just as well from 
here as from Paris.' 

" ' What result do you expect ? ' 

" ' That 68 to 70 departments out of 86 will return candidates 
favourable to me.' 

" ' Then of course you will become President of the 
Republic ? ' 

" ' Of course.' 

" ' Will your party give pledges of particular constitutional 
reform to the constituencies ? ' 

" ' If you mean will they go into details, No ! But they 
will pledge themselves to constitutional reform generally.' 

" ' What is your chief objection to the present Constitu- 
tion ? ' 

" ' Oh, it is quite unworkable, contradictory, and unpopular. 
Now, for instance, when Parliament wanted to get rid of 
M. Grevy, the Constitution had to be violated. There was no 
provision for such a contingency.' 

" ' I thought you were in favour of something like the 
Constitution of the United States, but you seem to me rather 
in favour of curtailing than extending the President's 
powers.' 

" ' You want to know too much,' said the General, laughing. 
' Come and talk over that next year in Paris. We must 
reserve details. It would not do to court criticism of our 
plans too soon.' " 

# # # # # 

When I returned to Paris I met a friend who 

101 



THIRTY YEARS 

occupied an important post at the Prefecture of Police 
and told him I had seen Boulanger at Brussels and 
what the General had said about his having received 
timely warning of the intentions of M. Constans, the 
Minister of the Interior. 

He laughed. We strolled into the Tuileries Gardens 
and there he told me the real story. Things had been 
getting rather hot for the Republicans, and Constans 
determined to resort to a delicate and dangerous 
stratagem to discredit Boulanger altogether in the 
eyes of the public. One of the inspectors at the 
Prefecture had been playing the part of informant 
for Boulanger for some time past. He was sent off 
to give Boulanger warning that he was about to 
be arrested. Constans timed the warning to allow 
Boulanger just the necessary hour or so to pack a few 
necessaries together, jump into a cab, and catch the 
6 o'clock train to Brussels. The shortness of the notice 
gave him no time to confer with his friends and 
advisers, one of whom M. Naquet, an astute though 
idealistic Jew, might have seen through the trick. 
Boulanger took flight and did exactly what was 
expected of him. 

M. Constans told the story himself with additions, 
which lend it a more dramatic effect. The story he 
used to tell at Constantinople, where he was shortly 
afterwards appointed to the post of French ambas- 
sador, and where, like an old general, he fought his 
battles over again to an admiring staff and a few 
habitues, was that he asked M. Clemenceau to invite 
Boulanger to a conference with him for the purpose of 
discussing a compromise. They met at Clemenceau's, 
and, after an abortive controversy, Constans went to 
Clemenceau's table and wrote out an order to the 

102 



BOULANGER'S BLUFF 

Prefect of Police for Boulanger's arrest. While he 
was writing Clemenceau by previous arrangement 
was called away to the telephone. By arrangement 
also he called out to Constans that it was he who 
was wanted on the 'phone. Constans turned the 
letter he was writing over on its face and joined 
Clemenceau. Boulanger, suspicious of foul play, 
turned it up, and, seeing it was an order for his arrest, 
excused a hurried departure and decamped. His 
Excellency was always ready to tell the story of his 
successful strategem. I suppose he thought every 
thing was fair in love, war, and diplomacy. 

■M. Jb Jf. .«. Jfa 

Boulanger, cabotin to the end, defeated, broken and 
a failure, shot himself 1 over the grave, after a year's 
mourning, of a poor lady who followed him into exile. 
But here again he missed his effect, for nobody com- 
pared him to Romeo. 

1 Boulanger died in September, 1891. 



IO3 



CHAPTER IX 

EXPANSION AND UNREST 

The Boulangist conspiracy occupied all the energies 
of the political firebrands and pecbeurs en eau trouble" 
for the time being. They were staggered by Boulan- 
ger's moral collapse and the unexpected verdict of 
the country at the election of 1889. Instead of 
carrying the 70 per cent, of the electorate, as he 
expected, he polled barely over 7 per cent. With the 
aid of the Monarchists he could only have counted on 
34 per cent, of the Chamber. The movement for the 
time being had failed. 

w *n* t? ^P 

An approximate triumph of Boulangism might have 
led to a strong Monarchist and Roman Catholic 
revival, seeing that the money with which it was 
engineered came mainly from monarchical and 
clerical sources. There is no reason to think, however, 
that it would have ultimately been more successful 
than the monarchical revival under Marshal Mac- 
Mahon. The impression at the time of the popularity, 
or supposed popularity, of the Boulanger movement 
was that it focussed a reaction against indifference to 
the question of the Revanche. There was a wide- 
spread feeling among Frenchmen, especially in Paris, 
that France was dishonoured by the supine attitude 
of the Republican leaders towards the steadily growing 
power of Germany, and the expanding disproportion 
between the respective fighting reserves of the two 

104 



EXPANSION AND UNREST 

countries which year by year was adding to the 
difficulty of recovering the lost provinces. Bou- 
langism, on the one hand, was a protest against a 
state of things the only remedy, if any, for which was 
to force a war before it became too late to hope for a 
successful result. On the other, the Clericals, in self- 
defence against the widespread hostility to the Church, 
saw in Boulangism a method of stemming the on- 
coming anti-Clerical torrent. The two branches of 
its supporters afterwards developed, the one into the 
" Nationalists," and the other into that strange 
military-clerical faction which displayed its power for 
evil in a violent outbreak of anti-Semitism and the 
persecution of Dreyfus, in which they more or less 
joined hands. 

While these reactionary forces were recuperating, 
the Republican leaders, true to their policy of creating 
a diversion from home and foreign policy, again took 

up the questions of colonial expansion. 

# * # # * 

The following extract from an article on the political 
situation in France in the autumn of 1893 by Gabriel 
Monod 1 described the state of the national mind at 
the time admirably : — 

" Another difficulty in the way of every Ministry is that 
France, now that the difference between the Monarchists and 
the Republicans has been composed, feels the need of some 
stimulating excitement. She is in love with stir and pageantry, 
with glitter and bustle. With no liking for distant adven- 
tures, she suffers from being compelled to inaction in Europe. 
. . . Nothing is produced, either in literature or in art, which 
excites enthusiasm. Yet we feel the need for action for 
something to admire, something to believe in. There is a 
longing for something nobler and greater in the life of the 
country. The very excentricities of the decadent and 

1 Contemporary Review, November, 1893. 

IO5 



THIRTY YEARS 

' symbolical ' writers and of the impressionists in painting 
are the sign for the longing for what is new and better. . . . 
There is in France ... a certain fermenting dissatisfaction, 
a yearning for an unknown ideal. The great danger ... is 
the existence of a state of inaction, of languid ennui, side by 
side with the longing for activity, ... an intellectual or 
moral chaos from which may spring some sudden outburst. 
It may be war, it may be social revolution, it may be a 
pacific, moral and intellectual revival." 

jh jf. m. a t. j f. 

Thus while the one party was seeking to rouse 
French feeling against Germany and reawakening 
the old lust for a revanche, the other was endeavouring 
to draw public attention back to that colonial expan- 
sion, which promised to open up new markets for 
French produce and serve as a compensation for the 
loss France had suffered through her unfortunate and 
futile tariff wars. This colonial policy, the more 
immediate purpose of which was to divert French 
attention from matters irritating to Germany, revived 

trouble with England. 

# # # # # 

In 1893, in connection with the action France was 
taking in Siam, an incident occurred which was not 
unlike the Agadir incident. 

France was exercising what she took to be her 
rights against her Asiatic neighbour, rights the nature 
of which was similar to those which Western States 
are in the habit of claiming, when a convenient 
boundary, access to a river, or administrative ambition 
is concerned. The comminatory proceedings of 
France gave rise to considerable distrust in England 
at a time when British policy was as averse from 
allowing British dependencies to come into immediate 
contact with French territory, as it has always been to 
having a frontier conterminous with Russian territory. 

106 



EXPANSION AND UNREST 

French colonial policy, like the Russian, was essentially 
aggressive, and the prospective co-operation of these 
two aggressive policies, which was already talked of 
in the chancelleries of Europe, was a rock ahead for 
which we had to be on the look-out. The French 
Government gave a deliberate assurance to Great 
Britain that their action would be confined to obtain- 
ing satisfaction for their grievances, and that in no 
respect was Siamese independence threatened. With 
this assurance the British Government declared them- 
selves satisfied and signified their intention to abstain 
from any interference. Rumours in Paris, however, 
credited the French Government with different 
intentions, and Sir Edward Grey, in answer to an 
inquiry in the House of Commons, announced that, 
in view of possible anti-European effervescence 
arising out of an armed conflict between France and 
Siam, the British Government were sending gunboats 
to the spot for the protection of British subjects. 
This action on the part of England excited the greatest 
indignation in Paris, and France thereupon and at 
once strengthened her naval forces. The Siamese 
Government protested against more than one French 
vessel being allowed to ascend the Menam. The 
English had only one gunboat at Bangkok, and for 
the purpose of taking off their respective subjects, in 
case of need, no Power required more. The French 
Government acquiesced in this view, but their 
instructions arrived too late and French vessels passed 
the bar, and a new anti-Siamese grievance arose out 
of the resistance offered to them by the Siamese forts 

at the mouth of the Menam. 

***** 

\ My connection with the Siamese difficulties was 

107 



THIRTY YEARS 

only an incidental one. M. Rolin-Jacquemyns, the 
" father" of the Institute of International Law, as well 
as of a charming family, and whose distinguished son, 
Edouard Rolin-Jacquemyns, has now taken his place 
as one of the most brilliant members of the Institute, 
I had known since 1875. I first met him at the 
Hague, where the Institute and the International Law 
Association were holding that year's sessions at the 
same time, as special correspondent of The Times. 
In those days The Times had room for a report on 
questions of International Law from a special corre- 
spondent running for five days to one and a half or 
two columns daily ! At this meeting at the Hague I 
met many of those whose intimacy I had the privilege 
of enjoying in later life, so far that is, as the intimacy 
of much younger men is tolerated by older men. It 
was there that I met for the first time Sir Travers 
Twiss, one of the most lovable of men and a 
"gentleman" in the good old sense of the word. 
There, too, I believe I met for the first time a 
man whose friendship I value as a moral asset, 
one of those honest, able Englishmen who make 
one proud to be an Englishman, Richard Webster, 
the brilliant son of a distinguished father, who 
eclipsed his sire and, as everybody knows, be- 
came Lord Chief Justice of England and a peer 
of the realm. Others were J. Westlake, K.C., and 
David Dudley Field, T. E. Holland, K.C., and 
Professor Asser. Rolin-Jacquemyns in a way " dis- 
covered" me, for he singled me out, had me elected 
an associate of the Institute while I was still 
barely out of the twenties, and before I was ten 
years older had me promoted to full membership 
as one of the sixty chief authorities on international 

108 



EXPANSION AND UNREST 

law, for the number of members and associates of the 
Institute, I may mention, is restricted respectively to 
this number. 

Rolin-Jacquemyns was a distinguished Belgian 
politician who had been Minister of the Interior in 
the famous Frere-Orban Ministry, and was one of the 
leaders of that calm and reflective Liberalism for 
which the world seems to have no more use. A man 
of wide culture, he spoke English and German with a 
perfect facility of expression, and with that charm of 
accent which goes with a highly developed musical 
intelligence, for among his many accomplishments 
Rolin-Jacquemyns could play at sight the most 
difficult music, and to the end of his life pos- 
sessed a firm and well-balanced singing voice. I 
remember passing an evening with him and a few 
others at a foreign hotel when he sang one after 
another all the songs of Schubert to his own accom- 
paniment. 1 

In his declining years, a guarantee, given by him 
many years before, to assist a relative in business, 
unexpectedly involved him in a loss which cost him 
the bulk of his private means and forced him to accept 
a remunerated post. This it was that led to his going 
out with his valiant and clever wife to Bangkok as 
European adviser to the King of Siam. 

In this capacity he was advising the Siamese 
Government at the time of the trouble between it and 
France, and to him Frenchmen attributed every move 
of the Siamese Government which thwarted the then 
French policy of encroachment, by which they sought 

1 The musical faculty of the Rolins seems almost traditional. One of his 
nieces, the daughter of Professor Alberic Rolin, the brother, late professor of 
the University of Ghent and now librarian to the Carnegie Peace Palace at 
the Hague, is one of the most accomplished amateur violinists living. 

IO9 



THIRTY YEARS 

to bring the frontier of the protected State of Annam 
to the left bank of the Mekong. They admitted that 
it was his duty to do his best for the country he was 
serving, but this they chose to hold he was not doing ; 
in other words, he was the mere instrument of an 
astute and unscrupulous England. It was a fact that 
he had been proposed by the British Government, 
but it had been in response to a request by the 
Siamese Government to provide them with a com- 
petent European adviser. The British Government, 
no doubt to avoid the jealousy which the appointment 
of a British subject would have occasioned, suggested 
a man belonging to a neutral and secondary State, 
and recommended this distinguished Belgian. The 
anti-Siamese, anti-English and anti-Rolin-Jacque- 
myns feeling ran so high in Paris that direct postal 
communications between Bangkok and Paris were 
not trusted. Letters from the Siamese Government 
to the Legation in Paris were therefore sent enclosed 
in an envelope addressed to me in Paris or in London 
and delivered by me direct to the Legation, and vice 
versa. I did not at the time think such precautions 
necessary and only lent myself to them to oblige my 
old and respected friend. But at a later date, when 
the revelations of the Dreyfus trial showed to what 
depths a detective service can descend, I was willing 
to admit my friend was wiser than I. 

# # * # # 

In connection with the Panama scandals a new 
anti-English grievance arose out of the Herz inci- 
dent, French patriots attributing to the influence of 
Panamist financiers the British delay in proceeding 
with Herz's extradition. 

These grievances were furthermore aggravated by 

no 



EXPANSION AND UNREST 

British criticism of French domestic politics, criti- 
cism which, though perfectly justified, was often 
humiliating. 

Amid all this resentment and irritation came the 
visit to Paris of the Russian naval officers in October, 
1893. It provoked scenes of delirious joy which 
nobody who lived in Paris at the time will ever forget. 
The visit was regarded as a deliberate manifestation 
by the Russian Government of a desire for an entente 
with France. Englishmen hardly ventured to show 
themselves while the delirium lasted, which it did 
unabated for seven days. It meant in the eyes of the 
Parisian public an entente against England with 
England's Asiatic enemy. England for a century 
had stood in the way of Russia realising her traditional 
" warm-water policy." She it was who had prevented 
Russia from enjoying the fruits of her victory over 
Turkey in the war of 1878. She held the key to the 
Persian Gulf and stopped her progress southwards in 
Central Asia. France had similar grievances against 
her, not only in Asia, but in the Levant and Egypt. 
Russia and France, in short, had a common enemy. 
Hence their rapprochement. 

One of the first consequences of the Franco-Russian 
entente was a less querulous and more haughty tone 
towards England. This new tone became noticeable 
in the following year (1894.) in connection with the 
Anglo-Congolese agreement of May 12, 1894, deter- 
mining the spheres of influence of Great Britain and 
the Congo Free State in Central and East Africa. 
Under section 3 of that agreement, the Congo Free 
State had granted a lease to Great Britain of a strip of 

in 



THIRTY YEARS 

territory, twenty-five kilometres in breadth, extending 
from the most northerly port on Lake Tanganyika, 
which was included in it, to the most southern point 
of Lake Albert Edward. Under another section 
Great Britain granted a lease of the province of Bahr- 
el-Ghazal to the Congo Free State, partly for the 
duration of King Leopold's life and partly for so long 
as the Congo Free State remained independent under 
the Belgian sovereign or a colony of Belgium. The 
territory thus leased followed the tenth parallel to 
a point north of Fashoda. The treaty was an 
ingenious method of solving two difficult problems. 
It assumed, by placing the district temporarily under 
the control of the Congo Free State, that Egypt was 
entitled to resume possession of the Upper Nile. It 
also secured control of a strip of territory between two 
lakes which abutted, as it were, on British territory 
south of the one and on territory under British 
influence north of the other, thus obtaining, with the 
free passage through the lakes resulting from the 
General Act of Berlin 1 , an independent territorial line 
of communication from Cairo to the Cape preparatory 
to Cecil Rhodes' scheme of a railway from one end of 
Africa to the other. 

4fc # # # # 

This time France and Germany joined hands in 
opposing England. It is usual to say that France 
opposed the lease to the Congo Free State of Bahr-el- 
Ghazal and Germany the lease to England of the strip 
of twenty-five miles. That is not perfectly correct. 
France opposed England on both grounds. As regards 
the strip of twenty-five miles, she set up the right of 
" pre-emption " granted her by a letter of April 23, 

1 See Art 15. 
112 



EXPANSION AND UNREST 

1884, from Colonel Strauch in which, on behalf of the 
Congo Association (transformed under the General 
Act of Berlin of the following year into the Congo 
Free State), he undertook that it would never cede its 
possessions to another Power without a prior under- 
standing with France, and that, if it were compelled 
to alienate any of its territory, France should have the 
right of pre-emption. France held that this lease 
was an alienation of territory and a violation of the 
engagement. She objected also to England dealing 
with Bahr-el-Ghazal as if it belonged to her, whereas 
it was still under the sovereignty of the Sultan. 

Germany, after protesting in respect of the twenty- 
five miles strip, declared herself satisfied with the 
British explanations, but the argument of France, 
based on a deliberate undertaking of the Congo Free 
State, seemed unanswerable, and the British Govern- 
ment at the request of King Leopold cancelled the 
clause of the treaty relating to it. 

A vigorous newspaper war on the British occupation 
of Egypt ensued in which the German Press warmly 
backed the French attitude. It fizzled out in a treaty 
between France and the Congo Free State, 1 in which 
France obtained an advantageous rectification of 
frontier and the latter renounced a part of the territory 
which had been leased to it under the Anglo-Congolese 
treaty of May 12, but retained the main thing, viz., 
Lado and down to there the left bank of the Nile from 
Lake Albert Nyanza. 

The evacuation of Egypt at that time was still 
within the perspective of coming events, and England 
was so far from having decided to remain, that I 
was seriously warned, on being offered an Egyptian 

1 August 14, 1894. 
T.Y. 113 I 



THIRTY YEARS 

judgeship by Sir John Scott that, owing to the 
possible evacuation of Egypt at no distant date, 
security of tenure could not be counted upon. France 
was still reckoning upon that evacuation, and, as we 
shall see, her objection to the leasing of the whole of 
the province of Bahr-el-Ghazal was connected with a 
project of adding it and more to her North African 
empire. 

My connection with the Congo began in 1886 in 
a very unpremeditated way. 

I had written a book on Bills of Exchange in the 
expectation that it would bring me legal business. It 
was a heavy piece of work in which I compared all the 
existing systems, explained their differences, and 
endeavoured to work out a uniform law. This was 
in 1884. As a fact, the only case the book ever 
brought me was a small one from the printers of the 
volume ! About that time, however, King Leopold 
conceived the idea of holding an International Con- 
gress to deal with the assimilation of the commercial 
laws of Europe. At one time there had been such a 
universal law of commerce, including a common law 
of bills of exchange, but, in the course of the last 
couple of centuries, the nationalisation of independent 
political States and consequent growth of distinct 
legislations had had the effect of differentiating the 
commercial laws. Baron Lambermont, King Leo- 
pold's intimate friend and always judicious adviser, 
thought, like the King, that a movement for the 
revival of the lex mercatoria by an international 
convention would be a useful form of that inter- 
nationalism, of which the Congo Free State itself was 
already a new and striking example. The King, more- 

114 



EXPANSION AND UNREST 

over, had a political object more closely affecting 
his country. He wished to accentuate the neutral 
character of Belgium by thus making it more and 
more a centre for international movements of all 
kinds. He had a collection made of all the exist- 
ing books which might be useful for his purpose, and 
amongst them happened to be mine. One day I 
received a communication from Brussels stating that 
the Committee of the Conference desired that I should 
be appointed one of the delegates to it. I was conse- 
quently appointed and attended the Conference as 
delegate of the British Chamber of Commerce in 
Paris, chambers of commerce being among the corpo- 
rate bodies invited. Most Governments were officially 
represented, Great Britain semi-officially by the then 
solicitor-general (Sir John Gorst) and Mr. Robinson, 
Q.C. To my consternation I found that I, a young man 
of thirty-two, had been elected vice-president of one 
of the two sections of the Conference over the heads 
of several eminent British delegates from England and 
Scotland. As regards the Conference itself, it only 
resulted in an enunciation of the differences existing. 
Towards the close of the proceedings, however, Baron 
Lambermont, whom I had met for the first time, 
asked me to deliver a short speech at the final 
sitting, proposing that another conference be called 
to continue the work begun. I showed him the 
speech I had prepared, but, when the time came to 
deliver it, a number of eminent men delivered speeches 
making this very proposal, and I kept mine in my 
pocket. Baron Lambermont, as we went out, put 
his hand on my shoulder and said, " Vous etes un 
diplomate. Vous savez quand il faut se taire." A 
few days after my return to Paris, I received a 

II q I 2 



THIRTY YEARS 

telegram from Colonel Strauch, who was the King's 
Congo minister, asking me to come at once to Brussels 
on important business. 

To cut a long story short, the State was negotiating 
with a British syndicate at the head of which were 
Mr. (afterwards Sir) William MacKinnon and Mr. 
Hutton of Manchester. H. M. Stanley was the 
technical adviser of the syndicate. The King wished 
me to represent the State in the negotiations. 

" Never shirk the drafting. The man who holds 
the pen has always some points over his adversary," 
was a piece of advice Baron Lambermont gave me 
before we parted at Brussels after I had had the 
King's instructions. 



For the next month I was engaged in daily con- 
ference with Stanley, whose first-hand knowledge 
made him more than a match for me. I could only 
warn him of the time-honoured danger of exacting too 
much. In the end he did exact too much, and we 
never got the length of drafting. The conditions 
Stanley insisted upon were too onerous for the State. 
On less onerous conditions Belgian capitalists them- 
selves were only too glad to do the work, and did it. 

H. M. Stanley was not a diplomatist. Uncompro- 
mising determination was stamped on his features. 
His angular form and hands were of a piece with his 
truculent manner. I often shared his very simple 
mid-day meal. Then, as always, we conversed a la 
Stanley, which meant that his words were final. He 
was unsympathetic yet fascinating, intensely in 
earnest and ruthless in his idea of duty, yet when 
off his guard almost sentimentally tender. 

116 



EXPANSION AND UNREST 

He had a little African boy whom he had brought 
from the Congo, and who was very unhappy in Euro- 
pean clothes within the narrow scope of Stanley's flat 
in Bond Street. One day I came in somewhat earlier 
than I was wont to do and Stanley was still out. 
Suddenly the door of the sitting-room was thrown 
open and the little naked savage dashed in, flew 
madly round the table, springing over the sofa, flying 
out again, round the flat in the wildest African style, 
whooping, laughing and gesticulating madly. Stanley's 
man told me that as soon as Stanley went out, 
the " little chap " flung off his clothes and became a 
savage till Stanley's footsteps were again heard on the 
staircase. He hadn't the heart to stop him, and stood 
" cavey " for him. If Mr. Stanley knew, he was afraid 
of what might happen. Some years after meeting 
Stanley I asked him after the boy. He told me he had 
sent him back to Africa. " Poor little chap," he said- 
" he was very unhappy. He needed exercise, and I 
often used to go out on purpose to let him have a run 
round the place in Adam's garments ! " 

Stanley once told me how demoralising Central 
Africa was for the European. Human life, he said, 
becomes indifferent to him, his own as indifferent as 
that of his fellow-men. Fever or a poisoned arrow or 
a snake bite may carry him off within a few hours, 
and, after he has seen his companions victims of these 
accidents, he becomes callous to them. Moreover, 
when a small band is threading its way through 
forests, over plains and past native villages on a 
journey of discovery, every group of natives becomes 
a danger. To get past them they must be scattered, 
and this often leads to loss of native life, and this 
still more brutalises the European. I often thought 

117 



THIRTY YEARS 

of this in the course of the agitation which was 
carried on for so many years to put an end to the 
atrocities committed in Central Africa. 

■IP rlr "SP 'fr ■)(• 

When the Congo Free State was in course of organisa 
tion as such, I was instructed to draw up a memo- 
randum on the working of the British Privy Council, 
and this led to the creation at Brussels of a court of 
final appeal corresponding to our Judicial Committee. 
King Leopold appointed three foreign and three 
Belgian judges. One of the foreigners was Professor 
F. de Martens, of St. Petersburg ; the second was 
Professor Rivier, Swiss consul-general at Brussels ; 
and the third was myself. Both de Martens and 
Rivier are now dead and the Congo Free State has 
ceased to exist as such, but I am still a member of 
the Council, though I am no longer called upon to 
take part in its work. Besides its judicial work, the 
Council was invested with legislative functions, and 
we used in the early days to sit frequently and deal 

with proposed legislation. 

# # # # # 

King Leopold built great hopes in the Congo as a 
field for the enterprise of his subjects. " The Flem- 
ings," he once observed to me, " were in bygone times 
one of the most enterprising peoples of the world. 
The merchant princes of Bruges and Antwerp were 
amongst the most prosperous and most powerful of 
the merchant princes of Northern Europe. But the 
Flemings have now become content with a sufficiency 
to meet the requirements of a modest provincial life. 
The world's greater markets do not tempt them, and 
the Belgians have become of little account among 
the commercial and industrial peoples of the earth. 

118 



EXPANSION AND UNREST 

This contentment with small things reacts on every 
department of the national activity." He hoped before 
his reign came to an end to see his people re-awake 
from their commercial, industrial, and intellectual 
lethargy and take a much more important place 
among the productive energies of the world. If he 
could interest them in the Congo Free State and 
eventually convert it into a Belgian colony, a vast 
new field for enterprise would be added to the sphere 
of Belgian interests, and the task of governing their 
huge dependency would promote the growth of a race 
of administrators, as the government of India had done 
for England. King Leopold was an intense admirer 
of everything English, and remained so in spite of 
the churlish treatment he received at the hands of 
many Englishmen. His wish has been realised — the 
Congo Free State is now a Belgian dependency, and 
the Belgians have been stimulated in the making of 
it to re-conquer their old place among the progressive 
peoples of Europe. In Italy, Spain, China, Russia, 
and as far as Canada and South America, in fact 
the world over, Belgian manufacturers and contractors 
get not only their ratio of the world's work, but in 
many places they have practically driven their com- 
petitors out of the field. 

My close connection with the Congo Free State in 
those early days brought me into intimacy with 
many distinguished Belgians, and especially of Baron 
Lambermont, who, as I have said before, was one of 
the greatest of the several diplomatists I have seen at 
work. 

Of humble origin, he had reached the highest post 
his sovereign could confer on him. He was not only 

119 



THIRTY YEARS 

real head of the Foreign Office, but was the power 
behind the throne. When the King lost this discreet, 
modest, and able friend, his mistakes began, and 
Belgium lost in Lambermont not only her ablest 
private citizen, but her respect for a monarch to whom 
she owes more than historians have yet been able to 
realise. 



120 



CHAPTER X 

FROM BAD TO WORSE 

Some sixty or seventy British subjects were seated 
one warm June evening in the galleries and drawing- 
room of the British Embassy in Paris after Lord 
Dufferin's annual banquet in honour of the Queen's 
birthday. His Excellency, with whom I was on 
terms of relative intimacy and with whom I often had 
an opportunity of talking of places and persons we 
knew in Fife (he had often stayed at Raith with his 
daughter Lady Helen Munro-Ferguson), asked me to 
come with him into a quiet corner to talk about my 
scheme of forming a Franco-Scottish Society. Any 
assistance he could unofficially give me he placed at 
my disposal. He then told me he regarded Anglo- 
French relations as very unsatisfactory. 

" The French," he said, " have a deep-seated, though 
quite unjustifiable, dislike for the English. I do my 
best to react against it, and so long as I am Ambassador 
I shall be able to cope with any difficulties which 
may arise with the French Government. But there 
is danger in this deep-seated popular animosity. 
Private efforts may be successful where Governments 
seem to fail. Your Chamber of Commerce is doing 
good work in the right spirit. But the anti-English 
feeling is probably least active among the mercantile 
class, whose material interest might suffer if England 
retaliated. As regards the lower classes, I doubt 
whether they have any feeling on the subject at all. 

121 



THIRTY YEARS 

It is the politicians, and the professional classes from 
whom they are recruited, who stir up grievances and 
irritation. Your proposed Society might be the 
beginning of a change by bringing people belonging 
to these classes together." 

Lord Dufrerin had come to Paris with a reputation 
which made the French supremely distrustful of him. 
He had been Viceroy of India when we defeated 
French policy on the Burmese frontier, and his work 
in Egypt had identified him with a tendency to giving 
definite form to the British occupation. By dint of 
patient and tactful persistency, however, he made 
himself extremely popular, and what he said en- 
couraged me to follow in his own footsteps. 
Between him and me there was also a sentimental tie 
not generally known to the public. The family of 
the Blackwoods originated from a citizen of Dunferm- 
line who a couple of centuries ago migrated, as 
Mr. Carnegie's father, my own, and Lord Shaw's, a 
century and a half later did, to a broader field of 
activity, but for the " auld grey toon " we both, like 
all Dunfermline men, felt a particular affection. 

I had thenceforward the powerful though covert 
support of the Ambassador. 

" If that you will France win, 
Then with Scotland first begin " 

is an adage recorded by Shakespeare. The direction 
was now inverted, but the object was the same. To 
win France, it was Scotland who had to begin. 

# # # # # 

There was something odd about Lord Dufferin's 
right eye, and I often wondered whether, like 
Gambetta, he had only one eye for use. When 

122 



FROM BAD TO WORSE 

he spoke to you he dropped his monocle and fixed 
you with a steady gaze which made you feel as if 
you were giving yourself away to one whom no 
human sympathy would move. When you had 
finished what you were saying, he would go on 
watching you with the same steadiness as if he 
were listening now to what you were thinking. You 
would wobble on the thin planks on to which in 
your confusion you had stepped ; and then in the 
uncomfortable silence you would say something you 
did not intend, and Dufferin seemed to be waiting 
for that. 

Lord Lytton once asked Dufferin what he thought 
was the source of his success in conducting inter- 
course with Eastern Princes. " My glass eye," said 
he. " When I had anything serious to negotiate, 
I fixed them with the glass eye and watched them 
with the other." He may, of course, have meant 
his monocle. 

I could see Lord Dufferin felt that things between 
Great Britain and France were drifting from bad to 
worse and that British isolation in Europe was 
becoming, as each successive incident occurred, more 
accentuated. 

His Excellency in 1894 had suggested to M. Hano- 
taux, who was warmly favourable to the suggestion, 
that the two Foreign Offices should try to bring about 
a general settlement of all pending difficulties, with 
the Egyptian question as the centre point. Lord 
Dufferin and M. Hanotaux were assisted, the one by 
Mr. (afterwards Sir) Constantine Phipps, the then 
councillor of embassy, and the other by M. Hauss- 
mann, then permanent secretary of the French 

123 



THIRTY YEARS 

Colonial Office. Mr. Phipps and M. Haussmann met 
frequently, and the negotiations resulted in a scheme of 
settlement the details of which, however, have never 
been revealed to the public. Nor, in fact, does the 
public, I believe, to this day know that a serious 
effort was made by Lord Dufferin and M. Hanotaux 
as early as 1894 to bring about an entente between 
the two countries. The scheme evolved, unfortu- 
nately, appeared acceptable to neither Government. 
Possibly the Egyptian question as well as that of the 
Upper Nile were not solved in a manner likely to give 
satisfaction to the growing British conviction that 
the occupation was a geographical necessity and 
not subject to limitations, while on the French side 
the feeling was equally strong in the contrary 
sense. 

In any case the result confirmed Lord Dufferin in 
the opinion that before any diplomatic action in the 
sense contemplated could be successful the French 
parliamentary atmosphere would have to undergo a 
change. 

A few months later the disquieting rumour that 
the project of an expedition the French Govern- 
ment had intended sending, a couple of years 
earlier, across Africa to the Upper Nile, had now 
been resumed, led to a very serious declaration 
by Sir Edward Grey in the House of Commons on 
March 28, 1895. 

Sir E. Ashmead Bartlett, who had raised a debate 
on this rumour, remarked that " any great European 
Power which held almost any portion of the Upper 
Nile, and so controlled its waters, held Egypt 
practically at its mercy." The great danger was 

124 



FROM BAD TO WORSE 

that we might some day be encountered by a fait 
accompli. 

Sir Edward Grey, who was then Under-Secretary 
for Foreign Affairs, was asked to make a declaration 
of the Government's policy on the subject, which 
he did. 

" I am asked," he said, " whether or not it is the case that 
a French expedition is coming from the west of Africa with the 
intention of entering the Nile valley and occupying up to the 
Nile. I will ask the Committee to be careful in giving credence 
to the rumours of the movement of expeditions in Africa. . . . 
At the Foreign Office we have no reason to suppose that any 
French expedition has instructions to enter or the intention 
of entering the Nile valley ; and I will go further and say, 
after all I have explained about the claims we consider we 
have under past agreements and the claims we consider 
Egypt may have in the Nile valley, and adding to that the 
fact that those claims and the view of the Government with 
regard to them are fully and clearly known to the French 
Government, I cannot think it possible the rumours deserve 
credence, because the advance of a French expedition under 
secret instructions right from the other side of Africa into a 
territory over which our claims have been known for so long 
would be not merely an inconsistent and unexpected act, but 
it must be perfectly well known to the French Government that 
it would be an unfriendly act and would be so viewed by 
England." 

M. Hanotaux replied in the Senate on April 5. He 
had asked for a precise statement of the British so- 
called claims. He had said to the British Govern- 
ment : — 

" You wish to have our adhesion without even explaining 
to us to what we should adhere. Do not be surprised that 
we refuse our acquiescence and reserve our liberty." 

France, he said, had not succeeded in obtaining 
any definite replies to her clear and legitimate 
questions. When during recent negotiations he had 

125 



THIRTY YEARS 

pressed the British Government to reply, the pour- 
parlers were simply discontinued. 

This attitude on the part of France seemed like 
an irritating and barely disguised defiance. It came 
also at a bad moment. The invasion and conquest 
of Madagascar had disaffected many people in 
England who had taken a sentimental interest in 
the island and where English religious missions pre- 
dominated. 1 

1 I was privileged afterwards, in 1904, to carry on the negotiations with 
the French Government on behalf of the Society of Friends and brought them 
to a satisfactory conclusion. In 1912 and 191 3 I was again entrusted with a 
similar negotiation on the part of the other missions also and was proud to 
receive the following letter from the Archbishop of Canterbury in connection 
with the result : — 

"Lambeth Palace, February 19, 1913. 

" Dear Sir Thomas Barclay, — Will you pardon me for writing to you. 
I have heard from Bishop King of Madagascar how very helpful you have 
been to him and to all of us, in regard to the difficulties which have arisen 
respecting French rules in Madagascar circumscribing and to some extent 
thwarting our missionary endeavours. It is of inestimable value to the 
Church in all its branches that we should have the help of one who is able 
to approach questions of this sort with the knowledge and authority that 
you possess. Should occasion call for it, I do not doubt that you will kindly 
be willing to see me on the matter, but at present things seem to be going so 
far satisfactorily that I need not trouble you. I shall hear further par- 
ticulars from Bishop King, who is very shortly coming here for a night. He 
has already written to me fully on the whole subject. I am, Yours very 
truly, Randall Cantuar." 

My old friend J. G. Alexander on behalf of the Friends wrote to me : — 

"February 16, 1913. 
" My dear Barclay, — I have been commissioned by the Friends Mada- 
gascar Committee to let you know how much they appreciate your very 
valuable assistance in obtaining the decree, now published by the French 
Government, with regard to religious liberty in Madagascar. As you know, 
our Society, which had got its property in the island already immatriculated, 
was not so much interested as are some of the missionary societies in that 
particular question, but it was essential to us that our fellow-workers should 
be satisfied as well as ourselves, and for all your efforts on their behalf as on 
ours we thank you sincerely. I should like personally to congratulate, as 
well as thank you, on the success that has attended your efforts. Yours 
very truly, Joseph G. Alexander." 

I wish to record, however, that the success of the negotiations was in no 
small measure due to the urbanity and conciliatory skill of Bishop King, the 
most valuable assistance of M. Jules Siegfried, the accurate and detailed 
knowledge of M. Allier, and especially the sympathetic attitude of the 
Colonial Minister, M. Morel, himself. 

126 



FROM BAD TO WORSE 

While these barely courteous exchanges of opinion 
were passing between Great Britain and France, the 
latter concluded her alliance with Russia, and through 
Russia was drawing closer to Germany. French war- 
ships alongside the Russian even attended the 
ceremony of the opening of the Kiel Canal. 

By the treaty of Shimonoseki the Sino-Japanese war 

came to an end. China agreed to pay an indemnity 

and ceded Formosa and the Liao-Tung peninsula to 

Japan. France and Germany now joined Russia in 

protesting against the cession of territory on the 

mainland and Japan yielded. This seemed like a 

new Triple Alliance for Far Eastern purposes. 
# # # * # 

In the course of the year these symptoms of co- 
operation against England and her isolation became 
still more pronounced. Then suddenly from the 
United States came more than mere rumblings. 

President Cleveland on December 3 had intimated 
in unmistakable language that the policy of the 
United States was not indifferent to the dispute over 
the Guiana boundary between Great Britain and 
Venezuela, and six months later Mr. Olney in a 
despatch (July 20) to the American Ambassador (Mr. 
Bayard), with an abruptness of manner not usual in 
diplomatic intercourse, intimated that if the British 
Government did not accept the American proposal 
to submit the question to arbitration, the future 
relations between the United States and Great 
Britain would be greatly embarrassed. He added by 
way of emphasis that " 3,000 miles of intervening 
ocean make any permanent political union between 
a European and an American State unnatural 
and inexpedient." " Thus far in our history," he 

127 



THIRTY YEARS 

explained, " we have been spared the burdens and evils 
of immense standing armies and all the other acces- 
sories of huge warlike establishments ; and the 
exemption has highly contributed to our national 
greatness and wealth as well as to the happiness of 
every citizen. But with the power of Europe per- 
manently encamped on American soil the ideal con- 
ditions we have thus far enjoyed cannot be expected 
to continue." 

Incidentally I may mention that afterwards in 1903 
I made the acquaintance of Mr. Olney, who is a Boston 
lawyer, in the " American Athens," and met him 
several times. He told me it had been necessary to 
speak strongly. We did not seem to take the Monroe 
doctrine seriously enough, and the United States 
Government had to make it clear to other Powers 
besides Great Britain, that it was a principle for the 
maintenance of which the United States would resort 
to the direst extremities. That is why he had spoken 
out. The occasion for such a pronouncement had 
presented itself and he had used it. 

England decidedly seemed to be drifting towards 
isolation among the nations not only of one hemi- 
sphere but of both. 



128 



CHAPTER XI 

APPEAL TO AN ANCIENT FRIENDSHIP 

There is an old flat-faced, uninteresting five-storey 
house in the Rue Cardinal-Lemoine over the doorway 
of which you can read "College des Escossois." The 
origin of the College des Ecossais belongs to the days 
of Robert Bruce. Balliol the elder had founded a 
college at Oxford to promote the education of Scots- 
men in English ideas. Robert Bruce founded the 
Scots College in Paris to promote the education of 
Scotsmen in French ideas. They both date from about 
the same period. The old college was situated in the 
Rue des Amandiers. Principal Robert Barclay, the 
uncle of the apologist his namesake, in 1690, 
removed the college to its present quarters, and in 
its chapel his remains were buried. Many other 
Scottish names and some famous ones are recorded in 
the chapel tablets. 

My object was to focus the Franco-Scottish move- 
ment and society in and about the old Scots College. 
# # # # # 

In the autumn of 1894 I unfolded this plan to a 
few French friends in the political world, especially 
MM. Ribot, Leon Bourgeois, Jules Simon, and Leon 
Say. They gave me every possible encouragement 
and, as will be seen afterwards, two of them effective 
assistance. On the Scottish side I obtained without 
difficulty the active co-operation of my old friends, 
Lord Reay and Principal Donaldson of St. Andrews, 

T.Y. I29 K 



THIRTY YEARS 

who at once appreciated the political value of such 
an undertaking apart from its educational bearing, 
in which they, however, took a more direct interest. 
Another always trusty adjutant for a good cause and 
old friend, Sir Frederick Pollock, at once actively 
joined us. Sheriff Mackay, who was also among the 
keenest early supporters of the movement, when after- 
wards, in the spring of 1895, I visited Edinburgh, 
invited a number of prominent Edinburgh men to 
dinner to meet and discuss the subject further. There 
I met my now old friends Professors Geddes and 
Burnet, and a number of others who were duly roped in. 
Later on in the same year, I joined Burnet at Oxford, 
and together we there roped in others. Through 
Geddes I made the acquaintance of M. Paul Melon, 
who now joined me in the further work of recruit- 
ment in France. He worked in the educational 
world, I in the political, with the result that before 
long we secured the support of all the most 
prominent men in France. Lord Reay, Professor 
Burnet, and I did the work of getting Scotsmen 
enrolled, and a goodlier body never started on its 
career than the Franco-Scottish Society. 

As I have said, my idea was to focus the society 
round the old Scots College, and the original constitu- 
tion and regulations I drew up for the society were 
based on this idea. As the scheme has come once 
more to the fore, I have inserted them among the 
appendices. 1 They were not adopted, because we 
could not find the necessary £20,000 to buy the 
college. The rules ultimately adopted I submitted 
at the first meeting the following year. They pledged 
the society practically to nothing at all. 

1 Seep. 357. 
130 



APPEAL TO AN ANCIENT FRIENDSHIP 

Unfortunately for my hidden purposes, the educa- 
tional side of the society soon came to overshadow the 
political, and, though the society has rendered and still 
renders splendid service to the cause of good relations 
between the two countries, its political partisans, who 
were such an important factor in its composition when 

it was started, have gradually dropped off. 

# # # # # 

The first meeting of the society was held in Paris in 
the spring of 1897. This constituante meeting, so to 
speak, was held in the new Sorbonne, and the first 
banquet ever, I believe, held in a university building 
in France was given there in our honour. 

M. Bourgeois presided. A difficulty I had not 
anticipated was that indiscreet Scottish patriots 
might, in all innocence, allow it to develop into an 
anti-English manifestation. An etching — a valuable 
thing in itself — representing Jeanne D'Arc surrounded 
by her Scottish archers, by Mr. John Duncan, pre- 
sented to our French friends on behalf of the Scottish 
Committee, alarmed some of us so much that I 
concocted an attenuating verse which was hurriedly 

printed and slipped into the envelope with the print. 

# # # # # 

There are Scotsmen whose pride revolts at being 
included with mere Englishmen ! They soon lose any 
such ideas when they have lived any time on the 
Continent, and especially in Eastern Europe. Great 
Britain is a weak modern term, which conjures up no 
great historical associations. Scotland suggests to 
the benighted foreigner little more than men in kilts, 
lakes, heather, hills and Walter Scott, but no great 
political entity. England stands for them all through- 
out the world. The prestige of the King's name is 

131 K 2 



THIRTY YEARS 

not that of the King of the United Kingdom, or of 
Great Britain and Ireland, or of the Sovereign of the 
British Empire, but is that of " King of England," 
" le Roi d'Angleterre," the greatest historic title in the 
world. And so it is with the name of England 
generally. Scotsmen and Irishmen may be proud to 
be called Englishmen and let them stick to it, proud 
as they may be of their sub-title. 

All passed off to the general satisfaction down to the 
ample publicity given in both countries to the event. 

It was Jules Simon who presided at the joint 
meeting of welcome. The speech he made was his 
last, and mingled with its farewell to the old historic 
Sorbonne was his own leave-taking of a world to which 
he no longer belonged. I afterwards wrote down his 
speech from memory. Though it is but a poor 
rendering of one of the most touching speeches of 
this fascinating and eloquent speaker, poor as it is, 
it is not without merit. I still hear the high falsetto 
of Jules Simon's voice, exhausted by age but still 
always Jules Simon's, and therefore dear to those who 
knew him. 

As I believe my reproduction of his speech to be the 
only one existing, I give it untranslated : — 

" Je vous souhaite la bienvenue dans cette nouvelle et 
luxueuse Sorbonne. 

" Je ne sais vraiment pas pourquoi cet honneur m'est devolu. 
C'est peut-etre parcequeje suis moi-meme une sorte de debris 
de la vieille Sorbonne, un petit fragment qu'on n'a pas demoli 
pour faire place aux nouvelles idees dont ce magnifique edifice 
represente la victoire, fragment d'une pittoresque mine, qu'on 
a demande au vieil ideologue que je suis, de vous adresser la 
parole. 

" Souvenez-vous que vous etes sur le site de cette vieille 

132 



APPEAL TO AN ANCIENT FRIENDSHIP 

Universite dont nos aieux se sont sature la pensee et qui a 
toujours ete le point de ralliement entre l'esprit de France et 
celui d'Ecosse. C'est ici que Voltaire et Hume ont tous les 
deux ressenti leurs premieres inspirations. C'est d'ici que 
vos Universites d'Ecosse ont pris leur modele. Et encore 
aujourdhui, c'est ici que vous etes venus de ces Universites 
rendre hommage a la sceur ainee. 

" Pourtant, n'attendez pas de moi, Messieurs, un eloge 
enthousiaste et sans regrets du nouveau batiment, car moi, 
i'ai encore grimpe les vieux escaliers uses, dont tant de pieds 
celebres avaient creuse les marches. Je ne peux oublier qu'un 
Boileau, un Balzac, un Voltaire, un Renan, s'etaient assis sur 
les vieux bancs d'ou moi-meme j'ai ecoute les successeurs en 
ligne directe des grands maitres qui forment notre patrimoine 
intellectuel, ces vrais vainqueurs dans la lutte eternelle entre 
la pensee libre et Pesclavage de l'esprit, ces vainqueurs dont 
l'ame durera encore quand le temps aura meurtri ces beaux 
decors, et que ces coquets murs seront ronges, comme moi, par 
la vieillesse. 

" Non, Messieurs, je ne puis pas vous cacher la profonde 
melancolie que je ressens, une melancolie que vous-memes 
devez partager il me semble, car vous venez d'un pays ou 
l'on a un peu le culte du passe, et ou l'on ne laisse pas dis- 
paraitre ses vestiges. 

" Je ne peux, neanmoins, terminer mon petit discours de 
bienvenue avec ce gemissement de regrets inutiles. II faut 
que tout marche de l'avant. Cette grande ville de Paris avait 
besoin d'un palais a sa taille pour pouvoir caser la nouvelle 
generation, qui, de toutes les classes de la societe, se precipite 
en foule vers la lumiere et la verite, et qui cherche avec 
enthousiasme, dans le savoir, la realisation de ses aspirations 
intellectuelles. 

" Je m'incline tristement, car la glorieuse vieille Sorbonne 
est enterree, mais je salue la jeune, celle qui n'est pas de mon 
temps. C'est en vieillard donnant la main a l'avenir que je 
vous souhaite, Messieurs, la bienvenue parmi vos anciens 
amis. 

" Notre vieille alliance d'esprit, nos luttes communes dans 
ce theatre de guerre qu'est PUniversite, sont un lien d'union 
que nous n'oublierons jamais." 

# * # # # 

The society met the following year (1898) in Edin- 
burgh, and on both occasions brought eminent 

133 



THIRTY YEARS 

Frenchmen and Scotsmen together, and it did 
unquestionably pave the way to the breaking down 
of the anti-English feeling in France. 

Its third meeting was to have taken place in France 
in 1899, and I struggled hard to get the French section 
to move, but the resentment over the Fashoda affair 
was felt most keenly just among the class of men who 
were members of the society. Comte de Franqueville, 
the author of a French work on English judicial 
institutions which is almost a classic, President of the 
French section of the Society, told me that he could 
not guarantee we should not be hissed, if we met 
before the resentment had calmed down. Besides, the 
whole country was in a state of high nervous tension 
on account of the Dreyfus conflict, and everything 
was out of focus. 

In short, the Franco-Scottish scheme had a good 
beginning, but it had not taken deep enough root to 
resist the storm, which broke out the following year 
over Marchand's unfortunate though brilliant expe- 
dition across Central Africa, and plunged Anglo- 
French relations into the throes of the worst crisis 
they have undergone under the Republic. 



J 34 



CHAPTER XII 

THE PATRIOTARD WAVE 

The violent attitude of British public opinion over 
the Dreyfus affair further embittered French feeling 
against England. 

The English never quite understood the circum- 
stances in that wretched " affair," nor could anybody 
who did not live in France at the time do so. Belief 
in Dreyfus's guilt spread, like an epidemic, over whole 
villages and districts. The counter-belief in his 
innocence, in the same way, spread over other whole 
villages and districts. In the large village of Sannois, 
in which we lived for a number of years, a place in the 
department of Seine-et-Oise about fourteen miles 
from Paris, everybody, almost without an exception, 
was Dreyfusard. At the village of Franconville, 
three or four miles north of Sannois, everybody, 
almost without an exception, was anti-Dreyfusard. 
As light spread, the belief in Dreyfus' innocence 
gathered strength, till the opposing forces became so 
well defined that the war became one in which, one 
might almost say, the forces of enlightenment and 
progress were ranged on the side of belief in Dreyfus' 
innocence, and the forces of darkness and reaction 
against it. This five years' war was fought out in 
the newspapers, in the law courts, in the music-halls, 
in the churches, and even in the public thoroughfares. 
Men who had never before done a dishonourable, 
unfair, or discreditable act became the foulest of 

135 



THIRTY YEARS 

detractors and the most unredeemed of liars. Like 
all war, it let loose the worst qualities of those who 
took part in it, alongside a few magnificent cases of 
self-immolation. The names of Zola, Picquart, Anatole 
France, Joseph Reinach, and others stand out as 
identified with acts of supreme moral courage. The 
subject had the character of intoxicating those who 
took it up. In England pro-Dreyfusism raged as an 
anti-French fever, with a violence only second to that 
of the anti-Dreyfus fever in France. English news- 
papers, even politicians and statesmen, spoke of 
France as a country which was fast sinking into a 
state of moral decay beyond any reasonable prospect 
of redemption. A man, and a clever one, afterwards 
a victim of another kind of war, G. W. Steevens, who 
wrote a book on the subject, and must be supposed to 
have " got it up " before doing so, assumed that the 
whole French nation was on one side. 

In his book " The Tragedy of Dreyfus " G. W. 
Steevens wrote : — 

" It was known in widening circles, first to a few soldiers, 
then to journalists and politicians, then to everybody who 
cared to be convinced — to everybody with ears to hear — 
that Dreyfus, if not innocent, had not yet been found guilty. 
In the face of that knowledge France still howls : — ' Let him 
suffer ! ' It is at once the grimmest and grotesquest spectacle 
in history — a whole nation, knowing that justice has not been 
done, keenly excited about the question, and yet not caring a 
sou whether justice is done or not. What matter, cries 
France, whether he is justly condemned, or not? Shoot him 
rather than discredit the army. And even of the minority — of 
the Dreyfusards that exclaim against his martyrdom and 
prepare to show that the verdict of Rennes has brought, not 
peace, but a sword — who shall say how few care for doing 
justice to a man who is innocent, and how many give tongue 
merely because they hate the army, or the Roman Church, 
or Christianity, or France herself ? All but the whole nation 

136 



THE PATRIOTARD WAVE 

— the nation which professes itself the most civilised in the 
world — publicly proclaims that it cares nothing for the first 
essential of civic morality. Partly it is the petulance of a 
spoiled child which will not see the patent truth, partly the 
illogical logic of French intelligence which will commit any 
insanity that is recommended in the form of a syllogism, 
partly the sheer indifference of a brute that knows neither 
right nor wrong." 1 

The italics are mine. 



I have been told by people who know " every- 
thing " et 'plus encore that what gave rise to the 
" affaire " was secret journeyings by Captain Dreyfus 
across the frontier, when he did meet German officers, 
and that this was well known in Alsace. On one occa- 
sion when I was at Strassburg I spoke of this with 
Alsatian friends, who told me that Dreyfus had 
relatives in Alsace, and that he should have come 
to see them secretly would be not to " dodge " 
the French but the German authorities, who would 
probably have watched and arrested him as a spy, 
had they known he was a French officer. Besides, his 
visits would otherwise have compromised his relatives. 
As the French say, " une theorie vaut une autre." 
If this explanation is the correct one, it may be one 
of those cases of anonymous denunciation which have 
been known to make the most innocent circumstances 

suspicious. 

# # # # # 

Elsewhere Steevens vents his own uncontrollable 
anger : — 

" And when an occasion comes, like the Fashoda crisis, in 
which a strong lead might fitly have been given to the nation, 
nothing was forthcoming except alternate bluster and puling. 

1 Harper and Brothers, London and New York, 1899, p. 292. 
137 



THIRTY YEARS 

With one breath they thundered out what things they would 
do if they could ; with the next they wailed for compassion 
because they could not do them. They inquired into the 
possible cause of the national decadence quite openly and 
wound up with ' poor France ! ' " * 

There never was a better instance of the part a 
vague public feeling may play in international 
politics than the state of public opinion in this country 
in respect of the Dreyfus case. No indulgence was 
shown for French constitutional difficulties or for 
those brave Frenchmen who were working to repair 
the wrong. The whole nation was lectured as if we 
ourselves had never had a miscarriage of justice and 
as if the vox populi was a sort of court of appeal. It 
is a sad thing for justice whenever it is so. 

Steevens's impressions were not those of a man 
living in the midst of the crisis. The fight, as I have 
said, became a last desperate struggle by the remnants 
of the Boulangist, nationalist and reactionary parties 
to arrest the progressive social tendencies of Radical 
France. After the initial mistake had been made, the 
authorities responsible for the mistake tried to conceal 
it, which was a further mistake because it entangled 
the Government with organised forces which were 
really fighting it. And between the two camps were 
the masses, who found it hard, amid the exaggerations 
of controversy, to discern the truth. When ten days 
after the Rennes judgment (Sept. 9, 1899) condemning 
Dreyfus, he was suddenly pardoned and, later on, 
reparation came and Dreyfus was promoted to the 
rank of Colonel and Colonel Picquart to that of 
General and Minister of War, the silence of the great 

1 Op. cit., p. 304. 

138 > 



THE PATRIOTARD WAVE 

mass of Frenchmen showed the Government had only- 
done what France expected it to do. Even the noisy- 
Nationalists and " anti-Semites," knowing their cause 
was lost, had the wisdom to protest only sotto voce. 
Though beaten on the Dreyfus affair they did not 
abandon reactionary agitation. Paris and the adjoin- 
ing departments still remained Nationalist, returning 
at the election of 1902, 35 of the 45 Nationalists sent 
to Parliament. 

# # # # # 

The Nationalist ebullition, it is seen, survived the 
Dreyfus affair. In the army the Nationalist malcon- 
tents had found so considerable a support, that in 
self-defence the Government descended to a method 
of obtaining information about the political opinions 
of army officers which, when it became known to the 
public, caused an outburst of indignation throughout 
the country. On the other hand, the support given 
to the Nationalists among the clergy provoked an 
aggressive attitude against the Church which led 
ultimately to its complete disestablishment. 

* # # # # 

About the time when Nationalism struck root in 
Paris, that is in 1898, a somewhat similar movement 
was noticeable in London. I remember at the time 
hearing a good deal about what then " patriots " 
chose to call the " Anglo-Saxon idea." The idea 
seemed to be that Britons and Americans, brought 
into ever closer union by a common interest in foot- 
ball and other sports, were destined by Providence to 
conquer the world ! It was quite a common thing 
in those days to hear anaemic little London clerks 
threatening the French nation with " the best licking 

139 



THIRTY YEARS 

they ever got." The " Anglo-Saxon idea " was 
quenched by a large number of these perfectly honest 
and plucky little fellows going out to the Boer war, 
though they did so with as little understanding for 
the meaning of war, I have been told by my friend 
Herbert Stead, who knows the brave little Londoner 
well, as if they were going to kick about a ball 
in a playground. Those of the poor young fellows 
who returned became converts to peace. In the 
area occupied by the small parish of Walworth, 
Canon Jephson, who was rector of it at the time, 
told me as many as sixty men enlisted. But all this 
is by the way, and I only mention it to show that 
patriotism, like temperature, seems to have waves 
which pay no heed to frontiers. It was also essen- 
tially in the fetid political atmosphere of the two 
capitals that aggressive anti-French and anti-English 

tendencies found a congenial soil. 

* # # # # 

In 1900, Paris returned a municipal council with a 
Nationalist majority of 45 out of a total of 80 and 
elected as its President M. Grebauval, a writer on the 
Nationalist organ La Patrie. M. Grebauval, though 
born at Amiens, is a genial meridional. He told me, 
when I saw him about a proposed visit to the Paris 
Exhibition of the Lord Mayor of London, that he 
hated the English still more than the Germans. 

" At least one can say for the Germans, they are 
des ennemis francs. They don't conceal that they 
want to swallow us up as soon as they dare. With 
them we know where we are. But with the English, 
nobody knows where he is. They are not even 
unconsciously hypocritical and perfidious. They 
deliberately lead you on with promises and sweet 

140 



THE PATRIOTARD WAVE 

words, and after they have shoved you over the 
precipice turn their eyes to Heaven, thank God they 
are a moral people and pray for your soul ! Ah, 
mon cher, ce n'est pas de vous que je dis cela, ni 
du Lord Mayor de Londres. C'est de votre execrable 
politique que je parle. Votre Lord Mayor sera a ma 
droite ; si meme le maire de St. Petersbourg etait la, 
il ne serait qu'a ma gauche, car le Lord Mayor de 
Londres est pour nous la plus grande gloire de la vie 
municipale du monde." 

He came over afterwards with the Paris Municipal 
Council on the occasion of the visit to London I 
negotiated in 1906, and was then as exuberant about 
the entente and the English as he had been about the 
Lord Mayor. He was put up at Lord and Lady 
MonkswelPs, and returned to Paris a calmer perhaps 
a wiser man. But, as he said to me one day, " Moi, 
vous savez, je ne suis pas mechant, mais des injustices 
me repugnent et nous autres francais, nous ne 
cachons pas nos sentiments revokes." There is 
nobody I like better than Grebauval. 

# # # * * 

No event in our time did so much to undermine 
British prestige abroad as the Jameson raid (Decem- 
ber 29, 1895). It excited as strong a feeling through- 
out France of the perfidious character of British 
policy, as the Dreyfus affair had excited throughout 
England the feeling that the French had lost all sense 
of national honour and justice. 

Nor was this feeling confined to France. It was 
equally strong in Germany, and Englishmen will do 
well to bear in mind, when they refer to the German 
Emperor's famous telegram to President Kruger, that 
though it disaffected Englishmen, Frenchmen only 

141 



THIRTY YEARS 

felt that the Kaiser expressed the indignation of 
Europe at this most deplorable event. I am sure that 
if any other nation had been guilty of such a breach 
of elementary good faith, we should have extolled the 
Kaiser as the man who had had the courage to voice 
what we too had felt. 

At the height of this Nationalist and Dreyfus 
agitation I happened to meet Francois Coppee, who 
had been bombarded into the chairmanship of the 
Ligue des Patriotes (I think that was its name). He 
was afterwards very unhappy about it. 

" Que faites vous, maitre, dans cette galere ? " I 
asked him. 

" Ma foi, monsieur, je ne le sais pas trop." 

He told me, however, that he thought Frenchmen 
were degenerating, that they were becoming too 
materialist, too absorbed in the race for enjoyment 
and luxury, to retain that grand subordination of self 
to great causes which had been the historic glory of 
French character ; that religious faith or patriotism 
had been the motive forces in the great human move- 
ments in which France had led the world; that religious 
faith had gone, and patriotism, if not revived, would 
be swept away, too, in the rising tide of materialism. 
It was with the idea of contributing what he could to 
revive the old political idealism of France that he had 
accepted the chairmanship of the League : " Voila, 
pourquoi j'y suis, sans avoir ni les qualites d'un 
president ni celles d'un agitateur." And truly in his 
humble dwelling, amid a sort of workmen's settlement 
in the Rue Oudinot, away from the " hum of men," 
with his windows thrown open to hear the children's 
prattle in the surrounding modest garden plots, one 

142 



THE PATRIOTARD WAVE 

could only wonder that he of all men should 
have taken a lead or have even allowed his 
name to be placed at the head of a league which 
" was out " to make political din, whatever the 
result. 



143 



CHAPTER XIII 

FASHODA 

On or about September 18, 1898, we found ourselves 
in the midst of a serious crisis. After the signing of 
the Niger agreement in June there had been a diplo- 
matic lull, and it seemed as if at length the beginning 
of an entente on African questions had been reached. 
Suddenly a new and most unfortunate fact had to be 
dealt with, viz., that a French expedition or mission 
had reached Fashoda, the chief town of the Sudan 
province of Bahr-el-Ghazal, and hoisted the French 
flag as a sign of 'prise &e possession. The Sirdar, Sir 
Herbert Kitchener, had just defeated the Mahdists 
at the battle of Omdurman, a victory over the 
only forces barring the recovery of the Egyptian 
Sudan which placed Bahr-el-Ghazel, a part of that 
Sudan, at his mercy. Everybody trembled at the 
idea of what might happen if Captain Marchand 
defied the victorious general and a conflict ensued. 
Such a conflict between the Anglo-Egyptian forces and 
the French expedition seemed, in fact, dangerously 
probable. Any French officer who had hoisted the 
French flag at any spot on the globe, I was told rather 
excitedly, would fight under it till overcome by 
superior force, and then it would have to be the 
enemy who hauled it down. If this happened, the 
prevailing anti-English feeling would be roused to 
frenzy at such an insult to the flag, and the two 
countries would be at war within a fortnight. English 

144 



FASHODA 

merchants in Paris who had goods on consignment on 
the French railways gave instructions not to discharge 
them. New orders were held in suspense. Standing 
orders were not executed. For some days business 
was almost at a standstill. I was asked hurriedly to 
publish in an English paper in Paris called the English 
and American Gazette an article on what would be the 
position of enemy subjects in France, if war broke out. 
The common idea among Englishmen was that they 
would be summarily conducted to the frontier and 
their belongings seized. My article, showing that no 
such dire consequences would result, helped a little 
to allay the prevalent alarm. 

On learning that the officers at Fashoda had arranged 
matters provisionally and without any sacrifice of 
life or national dignity on either side, that meanwhile, 
though the English flag was hoisted, the French flag 
was still flying at Fashoda and that the final adjust- 
ment would take place between the two Governments, 
the public on both sides of the Channel began to feel 

more confidence. 

# # # # # 

The public did not, however, know, and their 
ignorance was bliss, that the real danger came later 
on, and that, instead of diminishing, it increased to 
the day when the French Government gave way. 
During the negotiations the French Mediterranean 
fleet was ordered to Cherbourg, and at dead of night, 
with lights extinguished, passed Gibraltar unperceived 
by the British authorities. The mayors at the Channel 
ports were instructed to requisition the churches for 
hospital work and report on the beds and ambulance 
available to fit them for immediate service. A 
hundred millions of francs were spent in a few days 

T.Y. 145 L 



THIRTY YEARS 

in providing Cherbourg as a naval base with the 
necessary ammunition and stores. Orders to march 
were in all the commanding officers' hands, and 
everything was in readiness for mobilisation, if the 
French Government should be confronted with an 
ultimatum. While the French Mediterranean fleet 
was steaming to Cherbourg, the British Mediterranean 
fleet, unaware of the whereabouts of the French 
fleet, steamed to Alexandria and Port Said to keep the 
Suez Canal open and negative any idea of a French 
landing in Egypt, which would have been our most 
vulnerable point, had the course been clear. 1 That 
Portsmouth for a few days was in a state of ferment 
everybody at the time knew, but ferments at Ports- 
mouth were so frequent that people had almost come 
to regard them as they do fire-brigade trials. Nobody, 
in fact, seemed to realise that war was so dangerously 
near. 

The ultimatum, or what was tantamount to one, 
did come but wise counsels prevailed, and orders 
were sent in the beginning of November to Captain 
Marchand to haul down the flag and come home. 
***** 

The French yielded, but they felt sore at heart. 
The crisis had come amid the preoccupations of the 
Dreyfus affair. That, in spite of the high nervous 
tension then prevalent among politicians, the danger 

1 These facts reached me from different sources in the course of a few 
years and have not been recorded in those official sources of history we call 
Blue and Yellow Books. This, however, I may say : Each fact, as I have 
stated it, was told me by eye-witnesses or actors in the political drama, 
which was being played behind the scenes, while the public were listening to 
an angry unofficial discussion in thePress and to most polite "communiques " 
from official quarters. In 1902 in a speech at Manchester I stated most of 
them as above. My statements were given as sensational news in the news- 
papers. No doubt has ever been expressed as to their accuracy, and I 
now regard them as historically correct. 

I46 



FASHODA 

of war was averted, is a sign of political wisdom which 
does infinite credit to the French sense of proportion. 
The irregular course the crisis ran, the mystery of 
the attendant circumstances, the inauspicious calm 
throughout expectant Europe, the sudden collapse 
after a display of concentrated and determined energy, 
were all connected with the fact that nothing in inter- 
national politics can be isolated. Cross traditions and 
parallel traditions, side issues, domestic and party 
considerations, tendencies and counter-tendencies of 
public opinion, temperament of ministers and Parlia- 
ment, dynastic influences, financial questions, military 
questions, trade interests, are all and at all moments 
determining currents and eddies in the policy of a great 
Power. An individual foreign minister's tendencies, 
again, are affected by the temperament, prejudices 
and experience of his subordinates, and, when he 
places his points before his colleagues at a cabinet 
council, the more competent he is, the more difficult 
it must be to detach a question from the multitude 
of its qualifications and resolve it into a plain issue. 



Foreign correspondents of newspapers, and I speak 
feelingly of their task, do their best to place questions 
before the public as plain issues, the which is further 
complicated by " tendential " information supplied 
to them by Foreign Offices. Foreign ministers make 
speeches which give just as much information as will 
show with what judicious and dignified discernment 
they are presiding over the business of the nation. 
Then comes the historian, who in a few pages tries to 
tell the story of years, but he cannot pretend to do 
more than give an approximate survey of impressions 

147 L 2 



THIRTY YEARS 

based on these imperfect sources of information and 
the different official records of the national trans- 
actions. The story of the crisis of the autumn of 
1898 is one of the cases in which history will have 
to be re-written more than once. 

In connection with the Fashoda affair, the inter- 
dependence of events warrants a close comparison of 
dates, though the result can at best only be an 
impression. 

On August 2, 1898, Lord Salisbury wrote to Lord 
Cromer giving him instructions in connection with the 
possibility of the Sirdar in his progress up the Nile 
meeting with " French authorities "-..." who may 
be encountered." It would be unreasonable to think 
that either the British or Egyptian Government was 
unaware that March and's arrival in Bahr-el-Ghazal 
was overdue in August. The mission had been timed 
to arrive at Fashoda in November, 1897. The delay 
was due to a premature fall in the waters of the Bahr- 
el-Ghazal. Marchand arrived, in fact, on July 10 at 
Fashoda, where he had been firmly entrenched with 
his 120 men for three months before General Kitchener 
arrived on September 18. The French Government 
of course knew. I even remember at the time hearing 
that we might look out for complications on the Upper 
Nile before long. It is not likely that between the 
West African possessions of France and Marchand 
communications had at any time entirely ceased. Nor 
is it likely that the French Government, knowing the 
difficulties which were bound to arise out of a claim 
by France to prior occupation of Bahr-el-Ghazal, left 
the Russian Government in ignorance of the situation. 
Russia had joined France in opposing the application 

14.8 



FASHODA 

to the Commission of the Egyptian Debt for the grant 
of the necessary sum to meet the expenses of the 
Dongola expedition, and they had together brought 
the subsequent judicial proceedings which negatived 
the grant. It would have been contrary to all the 
traditions of French loyalty, if France had kept Russia 
in the dark as to her project of sending out an expedi- 
tion or mission to occupy Bahr-el-Ghazal or as to its 
progress and probable date of arrival. Now, on 
August 12, a month after Marchand's arrival at 
Fashoda, Count Muravieff first communicated to the 
diplomatic corps at St. Petersburg the Czar's famous 
proposal to hold an International Conference to con- 
sider means for the preservation of peace among 
nations and " a possible reduction of the excessive 
armaments which weigh upon all nations." I well 
remember the puzzled observations on the proposal 
in Paris. The public was not then aware of the 
approaching casus belli between France and Great 
Britain. " On nous lache " was the comment of 

practically everybody in governing political milieux, 1 
# # # # # 

I have put the facts alongside each other and leave 
the reader to draw his own conclusions ; still I must 
add that I do not think the Czar's merit in the least 
diminished, because his ministers may have chosen to 
bring forward his scheme at a time when it could have 
an immediate effect in discouraging a breach of the 
peace of Europe. 

That Russia did not wish to be dragged into a 
conflict with England not of her own choosing is only 
natural. This, later on, she made clear. In the 
second week of October Count Muravieff turned up 

1 Compare Daniel, " L'ann^e politique," 1898, p. 304. 
149 



THIRTY YEARS 

in Paris, and, I have been informed, stated plainly to 
M. Delcasse that Russia could not be counted upon 
to support an attitude on the part of France which 
might endanger peace. Later on, M. Delcasse took his 
revenge for this lachage and went, as we shall see, to 
St. Petersburg and told Count Muravieff that he could 
not count on France to worry England during the 
Boer war. I am not sure whether these two occasions 
for war were not avoided by the influence of the allies 
on each other. In any case it was evident that the 
alliance could not be counted upon for aggressive 
purposes, unless both parties to it had vital interests 
at stake. 

Seen out of its place in the perspective of Anglo- 
French rivalry in Egypt and the Sudan, the Fashoda 
incident looked like an unprovoked and treacherous 
attempt to penetrate secretly into Anglo-Egyptian 
preserves and snatch what belonged to Egypt just 
when she was on the point of recovering it. Though 
I am sorry to say there was a good deal of justification 
for such an impression, the facts as we now know 
them amply warrant at least the qualification of 
" extenuating circumstances." 

It will be remembered that in connection with the 
negotiations over the lease of the Bahr-el-Ghazal 
province which had been granted to the Congo State 
by the Anglo-Congolese Agreement of May 12, 1894, 
France protested, and as a result the status qud, 
whatever it was, remained unchanged. 

To understand the dilemma with which the parties 
were confronted and in which no middle course was 
open to either, no compromise possible, the reader 
will have to carry his mind back to the early days of 

150 



FASHODA 

the British occupation. The position on the Upper 
Nile was then shortly as follows : In 1881 Arabi 
Pasha on the Lower Nile (Egypt proper) and Moham- 
med Ahmed, the Mahdi, on the Upper Nile (the 
Egyptian Sudan) revolted. With the aid of British 
forces the Arabi revolt was quelled at the battle of Tel- 
el- Kebir, but the religious upheaval under the Mahdi, 
who, on his death at Omdurman in 1885, was succeeded 
by the principal khalifa Abdullah-el-Taaishi, spread 
rapidly over the whole Upper Nile area. By the 
beginning of 1883 the whole of the Sudan south of 
Khartoum, except the province of Bahr-el-Ghazal 
and the Equatorial provinces, was in revolt. Then 
came the annihilation of General Hicks' Egyptian 
force in March, 1883. Disaster followed disaster. 
General Baker was defeated at El-Teb in December 
of the same year. By the end of 1884 the position of 
General Gordon at Khartoum had become untenable. 
In January, 1885, the place was captured and General 
Gordon slain. 1 To use Sir R. Wingate's words, " in 
the vast province of Bahr-el-Ghazal not a shred of 
Egyptian authority remained ; all had been sub- 
merged under the waves of Mahdism, which now 
rolled placidly over its broad plains bearing on their 
way vast bands of slaves for the greatly enlarged 
households of Mohammed Ahmed, his khalifas and 
his emirs." 2 

In Equatoria, to the south and south-east of Bahr- 

1 Lord Cromer, quoting Sir Reginald Wingate, describes the province of 
Bahr-el-Ghazal as five times as big as England. It is a district covered with 
forests and mountains and seamed with low valleys subject to inundation. 
The soil is exceptionally fertile and there are cattle in abundance, while the 
population is estimated at between three and four millions. This, adds 
Lord Cromer, was probably an over-estimate. The population of the 
Bahr-el-Ghazal province prior to the Dervish rule was subsequently estimated 
at 1,500,000. See " Egypt," No. i of 1904, p. 79. 

2 See Cromer'6 "Egypt" (ed. of 191 1), p. 494. 

151 



THIRTY YEARS 

el-Ghazal, the abandonment was equally complete. 
In 1879 General Gordon had appointed Edward 
Schnitzler (better known as Emin Pasha), a German 
traveller and naturalist, to be governor of the province. 
The extent of Emin's province was about one-seventh 
of the original extent of the province previous to 
the revolt. In February, 1886, Emin received a 
letter from Nubar Pasha in which he was informed 
that, as the Egyptian Government had decided to 
abandon the Sudan and were unable to afford him 
any assistance, he was authorised to take any steps he 
might consider advisable to leave the country. He 
did not avail himself of this authorisation till two 
years later, when H. M. Stanley's relief expedition 
reached him. Thenceforward till the reconquest of 
the Sudan the only European influence which seems 
to have reached Equatoria was from the Congo State 
on the south. This was the position when Great 
Britain entered into the agreement of May 12, 1894, 
by which she granted a lease of a part of this 
abandoned territory to the Congo State ! 



M. Hanotaux became Foreign Minister on the 30th 
of the same month. A word about this remarkable 
man who was destined to play a conspicuous part in 
French policy towards England will not be out of 
place here. Though his services until 1894 had been 
mainly connected with the archives of the ministry, 
in which he laid the foundations of his vast historical 
knowledge, he had had considerable incidental experi- 
ence of foreign affairs. In 1885 and 1886 he had been 
for a short time councillor of embassy at Constanti- 
nople. On returning to France he entered Parliament 

152 



FASHODA 

and sat for three years as a member of the Chamber of 
Deputies. At the general election of 1889 he was 
defeated. In 1892 he was reappointed to the Foreign 
Office as chief of the consular and commercial depart- 
ment, with the rank of minister plenipotentiary. It 
was, therefore, with the reputation of being not only 
a highly competent and experienced official, but also 
a distinguished historical writer and politician familiar 
with the exigencies of parliamentary life, that he 
was singled out by the scholarly M. Charles Dupuy 
to be the successor of M. Casimir-Perier, who had 
cumulated the offices of Premier and Foreign Minister 
in the previous short-lived Administration. M. 
Dupuy's new cabinet was one of exceptionally clever 
men, several of whom were destined to play very 
important parts in coming French politics. In it 
M. Delcasse held his first office as head of the then 
recently created Ministry of the Colonies. Thus, 
these two men, M. Hanotaux and M. Delcasse, who 
were, later on, to be rival exponents of a new policy, 
the one whose name was to be identified with the 
Russian alliance, the other who was to put his name 
to the treaties resulting from the Anglo-French 
entente, sat side bv side for the first time in office and 
worked together in the promotion of that fateful 
African policy which since 1893 has played such a 
conspicuous part in the foreign affairs of France. Of 
other ministers in the same cabinet, M. Felix-Faure, 
who was to become President of the Republic, was 
minister of Marine, M. Barthou, lately Prime Minister, 
Minister of Public Works, and M. Poincare, the present 
President of the Republic, Minister of Finance. 

M. Hanotaux soon amply justified M. Dupuy's 

153 



THIRTY YEARS 

courage in taking an untried man to direct the hand- 
ling of the delicate questions which were arising in 
Africa. A week after his accession to office, in answer 
to an " interpellation " on African affairs, he delivered 
a speech against the Anglo-Congolese agreement of 
May 12, 1894, which left no doubt as to the French 
attitude on the subject. 

This lease by Great Britain, as such, he pointed 
out, implied a " prise de possession " of territory 
which was still a part of Ottoman dominions, of the 
integrity of which she and France were guarantors. 
France could not acquiesce in such a violation of 
international law ; nor could he agree to England 
and the Congo State settling any question of the 
boundaries of the territory of the Congo State with- 
out reference to France, who had a right of pre- 
emption over it. His colleague, M. Delcasse, had 
at once taken measures to send a mission to the 
territory in question, to ensure the maintenance and 
defence of French rights. This vigorous attitude 
marked the new feeling of self-confidence, already 
referred to, which was maturing with the develop- 
ment of the Russian entente. M. Hanotaux' speech 
produced a great sensation in London, and the 
following day, M. Hanotaux relates, Lord Dufferin 
expostulated with him about its comminatory 
character and intimated that he had an ultimatum 
in his pocket, which, however, adds M. Hanotaux, 
he did not deliver ! In fact England gave way. 
The Foreign Office, evidently, did not consider it 
advisable to publish the correspondence and 
arguments at the time (1894), and it was not 
till 1898, when they were printed as an appendix 
to a White Paper about the Fashoda affair, that 

154 



FASHODA 

the public knew about the gaffe we committed in 
1894. 

/ I cannot help thinking that if the public had been 
taken into the confidence of the Foreign Office and 
been at once informed of what took place in 1894 
a frank discussion might have ensued, which would 
have cleared up the situation and prevented much of 
the misunderstanding which afterwards resulted from 
imperfect knowledge of the circumstances. 

I have no hesitation in saying that, subject to 
explanatory justifications which seem never to have 
been given, the agreement of May 12, 1894, was one 
of the wildest pieces of diplomatic jugglery on record. 
Under it Great Britain, as a party in her own right, 
granted, as she had no locus standi to do, " a lease 
to His Majesty King Leopold II., sovereign of the 
independent Congo State, of the territories herein- 
after defined, to be by him occupied and administered 
on the conditions and for the period of time hereafter 
laid down " — territories which Great Britain had 
neither occupied nor acquired. Even if she had 
bartered them in the name of Egypt, whose rights 
she merely reserved, there still remained the ques- 
tion of the abandonment and the extent to which 
Egyptian sovereignty over the Sudan had been lost. 
In his 1894 speech M. Hanotaux did not mention this 
point, and it was only later that the " terra nullius " 
theory was relied upon as a justification for the 
hoisting of the French flag at Fashoda. Till 1898, 
that is for sixteen years, from the Mahdist outbreak 
to the battle of Omdurman, the Sudan had been 

under neither British nor Egyptian rule. 1 
# # # # # 

1 The Egyptian garrisons and civil population had been " withdrawn." 
Sir Reginald Wingate estimated that the total garrisons in the Sudan, 

*55 



THIRTY YEARS 

M. Marchand's mission was sent out at a time when 
the Sudan had already been thirteen years in a state 
of abandonment, and it reached Fashoda two months 
before the battle of Omdurman had restored it to 
Egyptian dominion. This fact and the episodes of 
1894, which show British policy at that time to have 
been as weak as it was " incorrect," are extenuating 
circumstances on the French side in a matter in which 
neither party can boast of having played a " beau 
role." By dint of trying to circumvent each other 
the two Foreign Offices brought their respective 
nations to the brink of the most foolish war any two 
civilised States ever seriously contemplated. 

including General Hicks' army and the force sent under General Baker to 
Suakim, amounted to about 55,000 men ; of these about 12,000 were killed. 
The rest seem to have melted away, and only some 1 1,000 returned to Egypt. 
See Lord Cromer, " Egypt," p. 485. 



156 



CHAPTER XIV 

NATIONAL WRATH 

While the public agitation over the Fashoda 
incident was becoming less acute in France, in 
England the autumn political speeches kept it 
up. A letter to the Temps by an excellent, but 
in this matter indiscreet patriot, M. Deloncle 
(now one of the warmest champions of the entente), 
proposing the establishment of French educational 
centres at Khartoum and Fashoda, was pounced 
upon as reflecting French feeling and gave rise to 
very serious observations by Sir Edmund Monson, 
our Ambassador, at the annual banquet of the 
British Chamber of Commerce a few days later 
(December 6, 1898). He referred specifically to this 
proposal as an instance of a " policy of pin-pricks " 
which must inevitably perpetuate irritation across 
the Channel. The responsible French Press scouted 
the idea that M. Deloncle's proposal had any official 
countenance and nothing more was heard of it. The 
passage in Sir Edmund Monson's speech, however, 
went far beyond the scope of M. Deloncle's proposal. 
It ran : — 

" I would earnestly ask those who directly or indirectly, 
either as officials in power, or as unofficial exponents of public 
opinion, are responsible for the direction of the national 
policy, to discountenance and to abstain from the con- 
tinuance of that policy of pin-pricks which, while it can onlv 
procure ephemeral gratification to a short-lived ministry, 

157 



THIRTY YEARS 

must inevitably perpetuate across the Channel an irritation 
which a high-spirited nation must eventually feel to be in- 
tolerable. I would entreat them to resist the temptation to try 
to thwart British enterprise by petty manoeuvres ; such as I 
grieve to see suggested by the proposal to set up educational 
establishments as rivals to our own in the newly-conquered 
provinces of the Sudan. Such ill-considered provocation, 
to which I confidently trust no official countenance will be 
given, might well have the effect of converting that policy of 
forbearance from taking the full advantage of our recent 
victories and our present position, which has been enunciated 
by our highest authority, into the adoption of measures 
which, though they evidently find favour with no incon- 
siderable party in England, are not, I presume, the object at 
which French sentiment is aiming." 

This passage was obviously inserted under instruc- 
tions from London. It was a discordant note in the 
harmony of the speech, and in the French rendering 
it was toned down with a compliment to M. Delcasse, 
whose conciliatory attitude the Ambassador com- 
mended with gratitude. It was the only passage 
which could be called " intempestif" the term applied 
to it in France. 



In 1897 I had been elected to the vice-presidency 
of the Chamber of Commerce, and, on expiry of my 
two years' tenure of the office, the chances were that 
I should occupy the presidency for the two following 
years. The British Chamber of Commerce in Paris 
has always been the most responsible British body in 
France, and its chairman has always been treated by 
both the British and French Governments as voicing 
the commercial and industrial interests of Great 
Britain in France. Hence there has, of course, been 
a more or less intimate connection between the 
Chamber of Commerce and the Embassy. As vice- 

158 



NATIONAL WRATH 

president, owing to the frequent absences of the 
then chairman, Mr. Harding, I was <Le facto chair- 
man to a great extent already. Anyhow, to me as 
the immediate prospective chairman, with maturing 
views of how I could utilise my tenure of office 
for the benefit of Anglo-French relations, the 
Ambassador's speech was of great importance, and 
a few days later I called on his Excellency to 
ascertain whether the Anglo-French negotiations 
arising out of the Fashoda affair were not pro- 
ceeding satisfactorily. 

" No, it is all right," he said, " but when the 
lion is not roaring he is supposed abroad to have 
become domesticated. Twisting his tail used to be a 
favourite American pastime. Pricking him with 
pins for some time has been a French entertainment. 
Moreover, it has become a sort of axiom in French 
policy that whatever England wants is necessarily 
detrimental to France." When Sir Edmund met 
M. Delcasse at the next weekly reception he had asked 
the Minister whether he had read the speech and had 
any observation to make on it. " None whatever," 
replied M. Delcasse, " except as regards your praise 
of me ; on dira maintenant qui je suis vendu aux 
Anglais." The speech might have done more than 
anything else to prepare the ground for the new 
seed which was about to be sown but for this 
unfortunate interpolation. 



Anti-English public feeling, instead of becoming 
calmer, grew again in intensity in spite of official 
attempts to make it more reasonable. 

President Felix-Faure at the diplomatic reception 

*59 



THIRTY YEARS 

on New Year's Day did his best to represent the with- 
drawal from Fashoda as an act of noble forbearance. 
" France," he said, " had always placed in the front 
rank of her preoccupations the consolidation of peace, 
that boon so precious for the happiness of peoples, 
and it was not in the course of last year that any doubt 
could be felt as to the sincerity of her efforts and the 
value of her co-operation." Towards the end of the 
month M. Ribot, in a long, well-considered, and care- 
fully-prepared speech, set out French policy, as viewed 
by a former Foreign Minister whose command of 
judicious language and power of marshalling his 
facts marked him out to " strike the keynote " the 
Anglo-French situation required. M. Ribot, who had 
been my neighbour at Sannois, and with whom I had 
often had opportunities of comparing notes, had been 
one of my warmest supporters in the creation of the 
Franco-Scottish Society, and I knew him well as a 
staunch friend of an Anglo-French entente. His 
speech pointed the way to a better understanding. M. 
Delcasse followed in a speech which came as a natural 
development of M. Ribot's. 

But these speeches changed nothing. 

* # * # # 

The anti-English wrath, in spite of all efforts to 
allay it, went on " smouldering." 

During the Fashoda crisis I was a candidate for 
admission to the " Epatants," the chic social and 
literary club of Paris. One of my " parrains " came 
round to tell me that he had withdrawn my name for 
the time being, because there was not the slightest 
chance of my being elected, so strong was the anti- 
English feeling in the club. This was a mere sample 
of the feeling throughout the upper and professional 

1 60 



NATIONAL WRATH 

classes in Paris. Among the labouring classes it was 
quite different. I had workmen in my house at Passy 
at this very time and found them perfectly devoid 
of anti-English animus. One of them, a skilled and 
intelligent artisan, a glazier who was adjusting some 
old stained glass panels for me, I asked to find out 
what the feeling was. " Que 9a nous fait Egypte ? 
Anglais ! e'est pas prussiens " was all the reply he 
got from the men he sounded. 

# # # # # 

The Boer war changed all that. The Boers were 
republicans. They were a tiny independent com- 
munity resisting a bullying great Power. That they 
delivered the ultimatum made no difference. England 
had been massing troops to invade them for months. 
Mr. Chamberlain had deliberately and gratuitously 
provoked the war for the benefit of capitalists. 
Truly popular indignation in France against England 
there had never been on account of the Fashoda 
affair, but for the Boers fighting for their indepen- 
dence there was an immense outburst of popular 
sympathy throughout France. It is true that it was 
not confined to France, for even in the United States 
where the official feeling was ostentatiously favourable 
to England, I was told by Americans in Paris, popular 
feeling welcomed every British reverse. It was the 
same, as I learnt afterwards, among the French 
Canadians, in spite of their loyalty to the British rule. 
In the French manifestations of sympathy for our 
South African foes, however, there was an accumulated 
energy which was the more alarming because it had 

no reference to a grievance which could be adjusted. 

# # # # * 

The attitude of public opinion in England about 

T.Y. l6l M 



THIRTY YEARS 

the Dreyfus affair, moreover, added fuel to the 
flames. Long after French public opinion had made 
up its mind that Dreyfus was innocent and the 
only question was how legally to set the matter 
right, English newspapers went on publishing long 
articles to show the iniquity of an innocent man's 
condemnation, articles insulting to French justice 
and describing France as a nation of degenerates. 
Even British statesmen descended to language about 
France and the French which was quite unworthy 
of British intelligence. 

Curious incidents came to my knowledge showing 
the immense distance there is between the same 
people when they are in their normal frame of mind 
and when they are lifted on any wave of public 
excitement. 

A young friend of mine, now the distinguished 
editor of a leading French newspaper, who was passing 
his honeymoon with his beautiful young American wife 
in the Lake Country, told me on his return of how, on 
the announcement of the Rennes judgment, the land- 
lord of the hotel at which he was staying had expelled 
him and his wife in the most offensive and brutal 
manner, on the ground that he would have no " cursed 
Frenchmen " staying in his hotel ! As a fact this 
high-minded devotee of the rights of man punished 
my unoffending friend for misdeeds he had been 
one of the pioneers in denouncing. Not one word 
did he say of this incident in his paper, merely 
regarding it as a case of exceptional fatuity. 

I heard from another source of how in a certain 
furniture factory in the Tottenham Court Road a 
sober business manager became so hysterical, under 
the influence of the prevailing mania, that he sacrificed 

162 



NATIONAL WRATH 

his business interests to it and refused to take on any 
French artisans, however capable. 

One of the most grotesque incidents was the perse- 
cution with knotted handkerchiefs at the Hyde Park 
pro-Dreyfus demonstration of some young Frenchmen 
who had come to take part in it ! 

This attitude of Englishmen towards the Dreyfus 
affair had a most deplorable effect on French 
feeling towards Englishmen, though but little was 
inserted in papers which have any large circulation 
among the working classes. This co-operation of 
the Press with the Government in the endeavour 
to attenuate anti-English feeling showed that even 
patriotism is influenced by that sense of propor- 
tion which makes life in France so much worth 
living. 

Iff ^p "IF TT W 

These talkative Frenchmen are really less emo- 
tional than the relatively silent Englishman whose 
silence they admire. " Beware of the limbs of 
the inarticulate," an American friend once observed 
to me, which reminds me of a policeman at Clerken- 
well Green with whom I was chatting one day 
while waiting for some wild person to get his crowd 
together. " It ain't the talking chaps as does any 
'arm," he said — " nor them as listens. It's the 
chap that can't talk and mopes by himself that's 
dangerous." 

I had taken a Berlin friend high in office to see 
our popular safety valves. " Such Socratic wisdom 
among the police would not be understood in a 
military State like Germany, where any relaxation of 
the consciousness of a controlling external force would 
let loose the feeling of revolt which is a fatal conse- 

163 m 2 



THIRTY YEARS 

quence of the processes of a modern Polizei-Staat" 
was the thoughtful observation of a man who, like 
many eminent Germans, regards familiarity with 
freedom as the best police force. 



164 



CHAPTER XV 

MIXED IMPRESSIONS 

One of the diplomatic puzzles of the year 1899 was 
why on August 2 of that year M. Delcasse, the French 
Foreign Minister, went to St. Petersburg. On July 29, 
the Hague Peace Conference held its final sitting, and 
the conventions agreed to were signed. On July 28, a 
debate in the British Parliament had shown that the 
complications in South Africa were far from approach- 
ing a solution and that, on the contrary, the antago- 
nism between the Boer republics and the British 
Government was becoming still more pronounced. 
" I am hopeful," said Mr. Chamberlain in that fateful 
debate, " because President Kruger has, I believe, 
come to the conclusion that the Government is in 
earnest ; because I have an absolute conviction that 
the great mass of the people of this country are pre- 
pared to support us, if the necessity should arise, in 
any measures we may think it necessary to take to 
secure justice to the British subjects in the Transvaal." 
For over a year war had been talked about, but nobody 
seemed seriously to think things would come to that 
pass. In September, 1898, I had met Dr. Leyds at 
one of the functions held at the Hague in honour of 
the meeting there of the Institute of International 
Law and had asked him how he thought the pending 
questions could be settled. He told me the difficulty 
lay essentially in a difference of temperament. Though 
the English and the Dutch were so like each other in 

165 



THIRTY YEARS 

many ways, there were others in which no two people 
could be more unlike. They were gradually, however, 
coming to understand each other's standpoints better : 
even in his opinion, however much they might bluff 
each other, both sides meant to come to terms of some 
sort. That was, I think, the general feeling in 1898. 
In France certainly nobody at that time thought the 
South African republics would engage in a war which 
must necessarily cost them their independence. 

w tS w ' "is* "If 

Meanwhile something had occurred in London 
which changed the whole course of events. The 
story, as it was told to me, was that a dinner-table 
conversation between Mr. Chamberlain and an emi- 
nent English Q.C. occasioned the volte-face. The 
eminent Q.C. expressed surprise that Mr. Chamberlain 
should be so keen on obtaining for Englishmen easier 
terms of naturalisation in the Transvaal, as if this were 
a British interest. Of course Mr. Chamberlain must 
know, observed the Q.C, that under the Naturalisa- 
tion Act of 1870 a British subject loses his British 
nationality on acquiring a foreign nationality. The 
idea that a pro-British majority would gradually 
grow up among the Transvaal electors, after naturali- 
sation of the British settlers, might obviously not be 
realised. Mr. Chamberlain, says the story, had not 
considered this contingency. The eminent Q.C. went 
on to say he wondered the Government made so 
little of the suzerainty question. After all, the 
Transvaal republic held its existence as a State under 
a grant from Great Britain which was not absolute, 
seeing that Great Britain had retained a link between 
them. The constitutive convention was not a liqui- 
dation settlement, but a running agreement under 

166 



MIXED IMPRESSIONS 

which there was an obligation to refer any agree - 
ments with foreign States to the British Government 
for ratification. The Transvaal was thus a British 
dependency, however feeble the link. Thereafter, the 
story goes on, the naturalisation question was allowed 
to slide and the suzerainty question became the main 
issue. This issue had a vital character which the 
naturalisation question had not. 

In September, 1900, I met Dr. Leyds again. He 
seemed, like most far-seeing observers, to feel that 
the more victories the Boers gained the more fatal it 
would be to the independence of the republics. This 
was contrary to the then current impression, which 
was that Dr. Leyds had been encouraged by Count 
Muraviefr" to think that the Boer republics would 
benefit by the friendly attitude towards them of 
Russia and that an intervention similar to that which 
saved China from dismemberment in 1895 would 
warrant the Boer republics in resisting British 
demands. He had probably been disabused of that 
expectation by M. Delcasse. 

# # =x= # * 

The original object of the Austro-German alliance 
was a defensive combination against Russian 
manoeuvres among the Slav population in both 
empires and that of Italy, in joining it, to react 
against French expansion in North Africa. I have 
endeavoured to show that Russia in entering into 
an alliance with France had in view her traditional 
anti-English Asiatic policy and that France had in 
view her anti-English North African and Egyptian 
policy. The resulting balance of power was, there- 
fore, a consequence, not an object, of this grouping 

167 



THIRTY YEARS 

of the great continental Powers. Russian diplomacy 
has always taken care to negative the idea that 
the alliance was directed against Germany. The 
drawing of Germany and France together into joint 
action with Russia against Japan at the close of the 
Chino-Japanese war was a Russian move in which 
Russia was supported by her two friends against the 
common Franco-Russian enemy, England. It was not 
unknown in the autumn of 1899 that the Russian 
Government was actuated by strongly-marked anti- 
English tendencies. Count Muravieff still followed 
the old Muscovite policy of Asiatic penetration which 
kept Russia in a state of constant rivalry with British 
interests. To alarm the adverse State, provoke 
negotiations and push one's own projects in the settle- 
ment, is one of the tricks of the diplomatic trade, and 
no diplomacy has shown a greater capacity for this 
branch of business than the Russian. I say so 
without intending any special reproach to Russian 
diplomacy ; that of other countries follows at its 
heels to the best of its ability. M, Hanotaux I may 
mention, however, has paid a high tribute to that of 
this country, critical as it is. I will transcribe it 
later on, 1 leaving to him the responsibility of the 
exception it may seem to imply and rejoicing in 
his testimony that we are not worse than our neigh- 
bours ! 

The then impending South African war, which bid 
fair to occupy the small British army and keep the 
navy busy with the search for contraband for some 
time to come, must have struck the enemies of 
England as an opportunity for which they ought to 
be prepared. French manufacturers had been supply- 

1 See Appendix, X. 
168 



MIXED IMPRESSIONS 

ing the Boers with war material on a scale which 
foreshadowed hard fighting, and, through France, 
Russia was no doubt, in accordance with the practice 
between the allies, well informed as to the resistance 
the Boers were in a position to offer to British occupa- 
tion. Russian railway extension into Central Asia, 
on the other hand, was at the time blossoming into 
different ambitious schemes, in opposition to British 
Indo-European schemes which, if realised, would 
have reduced the profit-earning capacity of the 
Russian schemes and seriously interfered with the 
prospect of obtaining the necessary capital for them 
in France. 

Was M. Delcasse's visit to St. Petersburg connected 
with the alleged encouragement given by Russia to 
the South African republics, in which France would 
naturally have been asked to join ? The French 
Government, in answer to Press inquiries and com- 
mentaries on the journey, confined itself to saying that 
the visit had a general character, its purpose being to 
discuss matters relating to the consolidation of the 
Franco-Russian alliance. It is not going far afield to 
suppose that M. Delcasse thought it desirable to discuss 
with M. Muravieff the potential attitude of the allies in 
the South African question, should war between Great 
Britain and the Boer republics break out and Germany 
assume an attitude favourable to the republics, as 
they seemed to expect she would. Nor do I think we 
should be going far afield in supposing that M. 
Delcasse, intending to give French policy a direction 
friendly to Great Britain, thought it right to impart 
his views to his St. Petersburg colleague, who was 
known to be a -persona grata at Berlin. 

I had called at the Quai d'Orsay shortly before 

169 



THIRTY YEARS 

M. Delcasse's departure with reference to the proposed 
invitation to the British Chambers of Commerce to 
meet in Paris and the Anglo-French rapprochement, 
for which I had begun to interest public opinion, and 
I received so much encouragement that I determined 
to take at once a first great step towards it, which I 
did at the Belfast meeting of the Associated Chambers 
in September. 1 

The conviction at the Quai d'Orsay was that the 
British Chambers would be dissuaded by the Foreign 
Office from holding a meeting in France, even if they 
should themselves be favourable, which was very 
unlikely. M. Delcasse was, however, himself sure 
that if the meeting were held in France during the 
•'Exhibition, it would have a most beneficial effect on 
public opinion in both countries. There was nothing, 
he told me, he personally would welcome more warmly 
than a state of feeling which would permit the two 
Governments to negotiate a solution of the outstanding 
difficulties in a friendly give-and-take spirit. Looking 
back at the events of that time in the light of subse- 
quent knowledge, I venture the surmise that M. 
Delcasse's sudden visit to St. Petersburg was under- 
taken to explain to Count Muravieff why France could 
not be counted upon for any joint action antagonistic 
to England, and to make it perfectly clear that if she 
associated herself with any joint action, it could only 
be pacific action in the sense of mediation offered in 
accordance with the provisions of the Hague Peace 
Convention which had just been signed. 

I can imagine that M. Delcasse assured Count 
Muravieff of the unalterable loyalty of France to the 
Franco-Russian alliance, and that he added that the 

1 See p. 175. 
I70 



MIXED IMPRESSIONS 

new President, M. Loubet, and the new Prime Minister, 
M. Waldeck-Rousseau, regarded it as indispensable 
to the preservation of the European status qud that 
Russia should be able to count on the good-will of 
France wherever the welfare of Russia was concerned. 
He probably pointed out that France was firmly 
attached to a policy of peace ; that the Exhibition 
about to be opened was intended as a great peace 
manifestation ; that the French people looked to the 
new President and the new Government to do nothing 
to provoke further ill-feeling on the part of England ; 
and that, on the contrary, England being the nearest 
neighbour and best customer of French industries, 
they intended to promote all efforts to draw the two''' 
countries together, hoping that ultimately this would 
lead to a rapprochement, through France, between 
Russia and England and put an end to the British 
policy of obstruction from which Russia had so long 
been suffering. 1 

That mysterious visit of M. Delcasse to St. Peters- 
burg in the beginning of August, in short, I believe to 
have been the first official step towards the Anglo- 
French entente which was ultimately to follow as soon 

as public opinion was ripe for diplomatic action. 

***** 

Though M. Delcasse and the French Foreign Office 
favoured the scheme of a rapprochement and promised 
to use their influence, if the invitation to the Chambers 
of Commerce of the United Kingdom was accepted, 
to secure them a hearty welcome, French feeling con- ! 
tinued to show itself increasingly hostile to England. 
I must add, however, that I do not think it was ever 

1 It is well to remember that the Russians regarded England as the cause 
of the constant unrest on their frontiers and as the source of all Russia's 
troubles in Asia ! 

171 



THIRTY YEARS 

quite so bad, as regards Englishmen individually, as 
had been the anti-French feeling in England. The 
animus, anyhow, was strong enough to be exploited 
by some enterprising papers, and a caricature of 
Queen Victoria appeared in one of them which 
excited such indignation among Englishmen that 
I was afraid it would wreck our project. The cari- 
cature appeared early in the last days of November. 
It was the work of an artist of Greek origin. I never 
was able to get a copy of it, nor did I ever meet a 
Frenchman who had seen it. Some enterprising agency 
seems to have bought up edition after edition as fast 
as they could be printed for export to England, where 
the copies were sold at a heavy premium. This 
happened so rapidly that all the mischief had been 
done before the Government could stop the publica- 
tion. In spite of the indignation this coarse and 
insulting caricature caused, caricaturists still con- 
trived to make fun of our aged Queen. As president 
of the Chamber of Commerce, I called on M. Poidatz, 
the managing director of the Matin (M. Stephane 
Lausanne was at that time, if I am not mistaken, its 
London correspondent), and asked him to take some 
action in the matter. M. Poidatz suggested that I 
should write a letter on the subject to his paper, where 
he promised it should appear in a conspicuous position. 
As this was the first appeal made at the time in 
France to promote a kinder feeling between the two 
peoples, it may not be without interest to read an 
English translation of its chief contents which 
appeared the following day in the Daily Messenger x : — 

" As an Englishman in close personal contact with the 
business and social life of both countries, allow me to tell you 

1 December 3, 1899. 

172 



MIXED IMPRESSIONS 

how regrettable and painful a thing it is to see two peoples, 
who ought to understand one another so well, go so far as 
to vilify one another. The most painful thing of all is to 
see writers and caricaturists make use of their talent to 
excite international susceptibilities. I make no pretension 
to saying whether England is in the right or in the wrong 
with regard to the present war, for I can understand that 
generous minds may well sympathise with a small people 
fighting against a great Power. Nor do I forget that 
Englishmen manifested similar sentiments at the time 
of the Siamese and Madagascar complications. It would 
be a great misfortune for civilisation if a nation neces- 
sarily took offence at the opinion of another in such 
matters. The right to criticise and toleration of criticism 
are a form of freedom, but freedom itself is capable of 
abuse, and when the abuse becomes outrageous, it is the 
duty of thinking men to point out its possible consequences. 
That happened when a certain section of the English Press 
was mad enough to propose that the 1900 Exhibition should 
be boycotted as a protest against the Rennes verdict. It was 
at that time necessary to remind the authors of this stupid 
scheme that France was our nearest neighbour, with whom 
we ought to maintain good relations, and that the genius of 
France furnishes us with a number of the things which go to 
render life agreeable ; that France, by its form of government, 
its tastes, its habits, its aspirations is the country which most 
nearly approaches our own, and that our literary, artistic, 
and commercial interests are identical with those of France. 
It is a fortunate thing that we had in England men who knew 
France well enough to understand the importance to France 
of the success of the 1900 Exhibition. What the leading 
English newspapers did then to arrest the boycott move- 
ment the great organs of the French Press ought to do now 
to put a stop to the present most unjust and regrettable 
insults to the Queen. 

" The French, with their ' esprit frondeur'* and their tendency 
to laugh at everything, do not easily understand how the 
English, who can support with the greatest calm any railing 
at their politics, their customs, their character, their institu- 
tions and their public men, are mortally offended when their 
Queen is attacked. There is something almost religious in 
the devotion of her subjects to their revered Queen. It 
must be remembered that the great majority of her subjects 
have known no other Sovereign since their birth, that her 

173 



THIRTY YEARS 

image is graven on every single piece of current coin in England, 
that her army is ' the Queen's army,' that her great court of 
justice is ' the Queen's Bench,' that the ships which represent 
the power and the prestige of England are ' the Queen's ships,' 
and that in every public ceremony throughout the Empire the 
memory of the great and venerable Queen who has presided 
for sixty years over its development is evoked. 

" The friends of France recognise with pleasure that the 
Frenchman is chivalrous, that he possesses in a marked 
degree respect for old age. What then has happened that 
he should no longer show the veneration and sympathy 
Frenchmen have hitherto always shown, for our aged Queen, 
who herself has always shown such sympathy and affection 
for France? 

" It has been stated that the attacks in question were not 
directed against the Queen personally, but against the country 
which she governs. I can assure the writers and caricaturists 
who so think, that the Prince of Wales and every other 
Englishman who loves France, have been deeply wounded by 
these attacks, which seem to them nothing but foul outrages 
on the personality of an honoured and venerated lady." 

This letter, which was widely quoted, had the desired 
effect and no further caricatures of the Queen 
appeared. 

The next step in the progress of the Anglo-French 
movement was the invitation to the Chambers of 
Commerce of the United Kingdom to meet in 1900 in 
Paris, but the invitation, its acceptance, and realisa- 
tion are a chapter of history by themselves in which 
the British Chambers of Commerce have their place 
as those who first appreciated the political bearing of 
Anglo-French friendship. 



174 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE DAWN OF BETTER FEELING 

At the Belfast meeting, in September, 1899, of the 
Association of Chambers of Commerce of the United 
Kingdom, I informed Sir Stafford (afterwards Lord) 
Northcote, the president, of my proposal, as chairman 
of the British Chamber of Commerce in Paris, to 
invite the Association to hold their autumn session 
the following year in Paris. As I was not sure of 
obtaining a favourable majority on the Board of the 
British Chamber, which would be partially renewed in 
February, Sir Stafford's public statement on the 
subject had to be framed in a vague form which would 
not pledge the British Chamber and leave it open 
to the French Chamber of Commerce in Paris to 
give the invitation, if need be. As I had the French 
Government behind me, I had no doubt its influence 
would be used to procure an invitation from the French 
Chamber, should its intervention be necessary. Sir 
Stafford, therefore, confined himself to stating that he 
thought it " very probable that next year an invitation 
would be extended to the association to hold its 
autumnal gathering at Paris. In regard to it nothing 
formal could be done at that meeting, but great 
interest in the proposed visit was being taken by the 
Paris Chamber." 

As the invitation could only be formally accepted 
at the spring meeting in March, I had six months 
before me to spread such necessary feeling among the 

*7S 



THIRTY YEARS 

chambers of commerce in the United Kingdom, among 
the members of the British Chamber in Paris, and 
among the public generally, as would make the giving 
and the acceptance of the invitation the natural con- 
sequence of a state of public opinion and commend it 
to the Foreign Offices of the two countries. 

As regards our Ambassador, Sir Edmund Monson, 
I met with no response, and I believe that at that time 
our Foreign Office did not believe it possible to 
determine any more friendly current of French public 
opinion towards England or any change in the deep- 
seated British distrust of French policy as regards 
what we considered vital interests for us. 

■M. jfr J |. J I. Jfe 

During the autumn little progress was made beyond 
concerting joint efforts. 

In the January issue of the Revue de Paris, M. 
Ernest Lavisse, member of the French Academy, the 
distinguished French historian, made a first move on 
the French side. 

" II y a quelques annees," he wrote, " si l'on cherchait dans 
le monde les causes des conflits possibles, on trouvait l'Alsace, 
la rivalite de l'Angleterre et de la Russie en Perse et en 
Extreme-Orient, celle de la Russie et de l'Autriche dans les 
Balkans, les luttes des nationalites balkaniques, celles des 
races de la monarchic austro-hongroise ; a quoi s'est ajoute 
plus recemment le developpement de la politique exterieure 
des Etats-Unis. Un conflit entre la France et l'Angleterre 
paraissait impossible. Aujourdhui cette eventualite semble 
la plus redoutable de celles qui menacent la paix du monde. 
Entre les deux pays, une hostilite, qui pourtant n'a pas de 
raisons graves, devient de plus en plus aigue ; si l'on n'y 
prend garde, ce sera bientot une haine aveugle. 

" Personne en France, si ce n'est une tres petite bande de 
fous, ne souhaite une guerre avec l'Angleterre. Tout ce que 
ce pays compte de gens eclaires repugne a l'idee d'une si 
criminelle et barbare folie. Mais il est certain que des senti- 
ments d'antipathie nationale qui somir eillaient dans la masse 

176 



THE DAWN OF BETTER FEELING 

se reveillent, et voici que les gens senses sont reduits a con- 
siderer comme possible la folie barbare et criminelle." 



I had written to Mr. W. L. Courtney, editor of the 
Fortnightly Review, pretty fully on the movement I 
proposed to engineer. On December 16, 1899, he 
replied acknowledging receipt of an article I had sent 
him on the subject and adding : " The subject is 
precisely one in which I feel great interest myself, 
and which I would be glad to champion in the English 
Press." 

As the January number was already made up, the 
article, however, could only appear in February, 
which it did in the place of honour. Its title, " A 
Lance for the French," described its object, and what 
I said, though obvious and commonplace to those who 
lived in France or who were otherwise in contact with 
French people, seemed novel to those for whom France 
was merely a mischievous and wicked country, which 
was everywhere thwarting good old England in her 
righteous endeavour to lay the heathen world under 
her enlightened control. It reads like ancient history 
now. 

I sent the friendly references to the article in the 
French papers to Mr. Courtney, who wrote me in reply 
at the end of the month an interesting letter which 
shows what British preoccupations were. 

The reference in it to the distinguished " enfant 
terrible" as Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman afterwards 
called him, shows what a conspicuous part he played 
in his country's destinies at the beginning of the new 
century. 

" I have looked with interest," said Mr. Courtney, " at the 
papers you have sent me with reference to your article. I 

T.Y. 177 N 



THIRTY YEARS 

intend to try and follow it up with another article so as to keep 
the matter going. I do not think, so far as I am any judge, 
that there is any desire to force a quarrel on France, but there 
is a very general impression in England that France intends 
to force a quarrel on us as soon as the Exhibition is off her 
hands. A great deal of this is mere newspaper gossip, I am 
aware, but some of it I am persuaded is due to Mr. Chamber- 
lain's supposed hostility to France and the French." 



Down to the very day when my invitation was on 
the agenda of the March meeting of the Associated 
Chambers it was viewed with distrust. Even on the 
board of the British Chamber of Commerce most of 
the directors thought the scheme too ambitious. 
Several openly opposed it, and predicted a disaster 
which would do more harm than good in view of the 
anti-English spirit then prevailing. However, I had 
a few quixotic friends ready to follow me in the 
wild adventure : — Mr. Thomas Hounsfield, the vice- 
president, Mr. (now Sir) J. G. Pilter, his brother-in- 
law, Mr. E. G. Connell, the then senior partner of 
Edmund Potter & Co., of Manchester — one of the 
finest types of Anglo-Scotsmen I have ever known, 
generous and romantic, an artist in his tastes and a 
gentleman in the noblest sense of the term — and that 
grand old Englishmen Sir Edward Blount. When the 
board decided that no pecuniary obligation could be 
undertaken by the Chamber and I took over the whole 
responsibility, these four gentlemen immediately 
offered to share the expense with me. Other donors 
followed, among them Sir John Blundell Maple and 
Mr. Thomas Blackwell. In a short time the fund was 
large enough to meet all emergencies. 

To return to the March meeting of the association, 
Mr. Harper, vice-president, who presided in the 

i 7 8 



THE DAWN OF BETTER FEELING 

absence, owing to illness, of the president, Lord 
Avebury, told me that the president was much con- 
cerned about the anti-English feeling in France and 
doubted whether it was judicious to press the invita- 
tion. He, as acting president, had also had com- 
munications from different important members in 
the same sense and asked me what would be the 
impression produced in France if the majority voted 
against its acceptance. I asked him to transfer the 
subject to the agenda of the following day. Mean- 
while, Lord Salisbury sent a cipher telegram to the 
Ambassador in Paris to inquire what he thought of 
the proposal. The reply from Sir Edmund Monson, 
though unencouraging, was not adverse, and Lord 
Salisbury informed Lord Avebury that he saw no 
objection to its being accepted. 

The following report of the proceedings on the 
subject appeared in the daily papers : — 

Mr. Barclay, chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce 
in Paris, then formally invited the Association to hold its 
autumnal meeting in Paris as the guests of the British Chamber 
of Commerce. He said : 

" In connection with this invitation I should like, with your 
permission, Sir, to make a few remarks about the rumoured 
ill-feeling in France towards Englishmen. If there is any 
such ill-feeling it must be of the most superficial character, 
for it certainly does not in the slightest degree affect the 
relations of Frenchmen towards Englishmen personally. I 
have, moreover, the very best possible authority, both French 
and English, for saying that the official relations between the 
two countries were never more cordial. 

" In France, however, as in England, misunderstandings 
will sometimes crop up, and when they do, it is the duty 
of those who know better to do their best to arrest their 
growth. The misunderstanding in the present case is 
reciprocal. 

" The impression among the French is that we are seeking 
for a pretext to quarrel with them, and the impression in 

T79 N 2 



THIRTY YEARS 

England seems to be that the French are only waiting for 
the close of the Exhibition to pick a quarrel with us. Nothing, 
I know as a fact, is farther from the official mind on both sides, 
and the very nature of the misunderstanding excludes any 
possibility of a desire to quarrel among the public at large of 
either country. 

" No doubt the French Press might have striven to give a 
different direction to French sentiment as regards the war, 
but we must not be too susceptible respecting matters of 
opinion. We have always ourselves claimed an unrestricted 
right to criticise, and Englishmen would be the first to regret 
any precedent of nations taking offence at freedom of speech 
among the private citizens of other countries. 

" No doubt there were some vile caricatures of Her Majesty, 
and they very justly excited the indignation of every loyal 
Englishman. But we must not hold a nation responsible for 
the odious acts of individuals in a free country. Nor must 
we forget how immediate was the discontinuance of these 
caricatures as soon as it was pointed out that an aged foreign 
Sovereign and lady who had never been other than a friend 
of the French people was not to be treated in the same way 
as an elected political officer. The most anti-English paper 
in Paris and one of the greatest offenders, the Matin, 
at once gave a protesting letter on the subject the most 
prominent place in its columns, and the caricatures which 
have since been published have never exceeded the limits of 
legitimate caricature. 

" But even while the sympathies of the French have been 
on the side of the Boers, there has been nothing but admira- 
tion for the dogged determination of the English in their 
time of trial, for the courage of our soldiers hurled day 
after day against the fortified rocks held by the enemy, for 
the absence of all recriminating spirit and for the magnificent 
standing shoulder to shoulder of the whole Empire when it 
seemed to those who did not know British character as if our 
colonies might consider the moment propitious to assert their 
separate interests. If you have read the Temps, the Ddbats, 
the Figaro, the Gaulois, even the execrated Matin, since the 
first reverses, you will have seen that this has throughout been 
the feeling of the French. We can therefore afford to let them 
sympathise with two small communities struggling for inde- 
pendence. We have never failed to feel for the weaker side, 
even without quite knowing whether the weaker side was in 
the right or the wrong, and probably we shall have to wait a 

1 80 



THE DAWN OF BETTER FEELING 

long time before public opinion will take a dispassionate view 
in such cases. Even if there were any hostility in France to 
England, this would only be the more reason for our doing 
everything in our power to remove it. Nothing will appeal 
more to the generous feelings of the French than your 
disregarding current rumours and warnings and stray anglers 
in troubled waters, for whom peace means empty hands. It 
was an immense satisfaction to the French to see our future 
Sovereign at the head of the British section of the Exhibition. 
No man, not even any Frenchman, is more popular in France 
than the Prince of Wales, and if there is any man in the world 
who has it in his power by a word to make the whole French 
nation kind, it is His Royal Highness. 

" The Exhibition will shortly be opened, and you may be 
sure, gentlemen, that a very slight effort on our part will 
place us once more on the best footing even with the French 
Press, for the French are a warm-hearted people, ready, like 
Cyrano de Bergerac, ' pour un out ou un non ' to fight or to 
embrace. Nowhere in the wide world have we better and 
more admiring friends, and you may depend on a hearty 
welcome, not only from the whole British community in 
Paris, but from every representative authority of France." 

The chairman stated that Mr. Barclay had dealt so con- 
clusively with the only doubt which might have lurked in 
the minds of some of the members, that he could only heartily 
thank the British Chamber in Paris for its cordial invitation, 
and put its acceptance to the vote. It was carried, amid great 
applause, unanimously. 

The vote, as seen, resulted in a unanimous accept- 
ance, though many members had expressed themselves 
in private very strongly against the association 
meeting anywhere abroad at all, and, as a fact, it did 
seem anomalous that a purely British institution 
should meet in a foreign country to deliberate on 
purely British questions. But all felt that no con- 
siderations of form or precedent were of much account 
compared with the enormous importance of improving 
Anglo-French relations. 

The good influence of the move was immediately 

181 



THIRTY YEARS 

visible. The Press responded to the challenge, and 
my difficulty was not to find entertainment and 
hospitality for the guests who were to meet in Paris 
in September, but, with courtesy, to confine accept- 
ance to what was useful for the achievement of my 
object, viz., to produce an overwhelming effect on 
French and British public opinion. 

On the French official side I was practically given 
carte blanche to arrange everything as I thought best. 
I used my discretion so fully that one day M. Millerand, 
Minister of Commerce, who himself took an active 
interest in the preparations, exclaimed rather petu- 
lently, " Mais, M. le President, vous nous traitez 
comme des automates " ; but the cause was too 
momentous to consider anybody's personal con- 
venience, and I was soon forgiven for insisting on an 
effective and artisticallv co-ordinated ensemble. 

The meeting was the largest muster of British 
Chambers of Commerce on record. The number 
represented was, if I remember aright, 85, and the 
number of representatives and their families was 
somewhere between 500 and 600. The number at the 
banquet at which I presided was over 800, which 
included a large number of Frenchmen we had 
invited. 

Every French authority, from the President of the 
Republic to the gendarmes at the Exhibition, co- 
operated in this patriotic work de rendre les francais 
et les anglais amis. As the President was to spend 
September at Rambouillet, he authorised me to 
invite a dozen gentlemen to lunch with him there 
and placed the presidential railway carriage at their 
disposal to take them down. The State theatres 
were thrown open to the visitors, the Paris Chamber 

182 



THE DAWN OF BETTER FEELING 

of Commerce gave a brilliant reception at which the 
Garde Republicaine in gala uniform lined the entrance 
and staircase as on royal visits. All the French 
domestic and colonial Exhibition authorities offered 
special entertainments, down to granting the hospi- 
tality of the Trocadero itself for the meetings. M. 
Millerand not only gave a garden party in the charming 
gardens of his ministry, but himself in the name of 
the Government welcomed the visitors and at the 
banquet proposed the Queen's health. Not an hour 
of the day was left without something interesting 
to do. Only the British Embassy was closed, owing 
to mourning for the Duke of Edinburgh. Mr. (now 
Sir) Herbert Jekyll, British Commissioner at the 
Exhibition, was afraid that he would have to follow 
the Ambassador's example, but he wrote to the Prince 
of Wales, who was president of the Commission, and 
received instructions to do everything in his power 
to help in the entertainment. This opened the flood- 
gates of British hospitality as well, and the British 
sections now joined with the French. It was a perfect 
avalanche of entertainment which might have filled 
a month of daily enjoyment and to spare. The 
Cingalese section, under the direction of Mr. W. E. 
Davidson, now Governor of Newfoundland, distin- 
guished itself by the exceptional interest of its 
exhibits and hospitality. 

There was only one painful occurrence. I was 
asked to give the Minister of Commerce a list of the 
gentlemen who ought to be decorated on the occasion 
with the Legion of Honour. I handed a list to the 
minister's private secretary, who afterwards told 
me that, on making the usual application at the 
British Embassy for Her Majesty's concurrence, the 

183 



THIRTY YEARS 

reply absolutely negatived the idea of conferring any 
decorations at all. 

The assembling in Paris of such a large number of 
representatives and important men " broke the ice," 
as the Report of the British Commissioners of the 
Exhibition pointed out. 

" Up to the month of August," it read, " few British visitors 
came to the Exhibition. Various reasons contributed to 
deter Your Majesty's subjects from visiting Paris, and no 
change was perceptible previous to the visit of the delegates 
of the Associated Chambers of Commerce early in September. 
They were received with marked cordiality, and their visit 
was a striking success, owing largely to the efforts of Lord 
Avebury and his colleagues, and to the excellent arrangements 
made by Mr. Thomas Barclay, the president of the British 
Chamber of Commerce in Paris. Whether it was due to this 
or other causes, British visitors began to come in very large 
numbers immediately after the return of the Associated 
Chambers, and continued to flock to Paris until the very end 
of the Exhibition." 

Not a little of the success of the meeting was in fact 
due to the prestige and calm courtesy of the late 
Lord Avebury, who, under his more familiar name 
of Sir John Lubbock, was well known to every 
literate Frenchman and who, as president of the 
association, conducted its labours and spoke in its 
name with an unaffected dignity which commanded 
general admiration. 1 

* # # # # 

The iron was now hot, but other things had to be 
done to keep it hot. One of the first men to whom I 
confided my plan had been my friend, Baron Pierre de 
Coubertin, founder of the " Olympic Games,'' with 
whom a review I had written in Literature of his 
excellent book, " The Evolution of France under the 

1 He spoke French >vith scarcely an accent and quite grammatically. 

'184 



THE DAWN OF BETTER FEELING 

Third Republic," a couple of years before, had brought 
me into contact. He wrote me in English on Septem- 
ber 20, a fortnight after the meeting : — 

" It was strange indeed that I was just going to write to 
you, so anxious was I to tell you with what interest and 
pleasure I followed the progress and happy result of your 
admirable plan. You did the one thing that could, under 
the present unfavourable circumstances, act most powerfully 
upon public opinion in both countries. Never mind what 
incorrigible journalists have to say: the ' lecon des choses^ is 
given to all who are sincere and unprejudiced, and I believe 
they are by far the more numerous. 

" When I wrote the article you kindly allude to I did it 
because things were growing worse every day, and I thought 
it might be good that a Frenchman should denounce the coming 
danger. I was very much gratified at the comments that 
appeared in the leading English papers, and I am led to believe 
that the article did some good, after all. But as you say, now 
we must help the movement of reconciliation which chiefly 
owing to you has been started." 

*JP *JP TT TV- 

The Exhibition had no sooner closed its doors 
(October 31) than a new occasion for anti-English 
clamour arose which seemed likely to jeopardise the 
good results of the meeting of the Associated Chambers 
in Paris. This was the announcement that President 
Kruger was about to embark on his mission to Europe 
for the purpose of enlisting the influence of continental 
Powers in the preservation of the independence of the 
republics. 

The news gave rise to an inauspicious division of 
opinion. There was a very strong feeling among 
responsible and experienced politicians that the new 
current of friendship towards England was of in- 
finitely greater value to France than any quixotic 
manifestations in favour of the republics, which were 
obviously doomed from the moment the ultimatum 

l8«5 



THIRTY YEARS 

was launched. Pro-Boer manifestations could only 
disaffect Englishmen and would certainly not make 
them less obdurate in their attitude towards the 
conquered States. 

The French Foreign Office had the gravest appre- 
hensions respecting this visit, and would have gladly 
escaped from the obligation of giving the President 
of the South African Republic any official recognition. 
The annexation had been proclaimed on September i, 
but as it had not yet been notified to the French 
Government, so far as France was concerned, Kruger 
was still the chief of an independent State which 
denied the British claim even to suzerainty. For- 
tunately for orthodox Republicans, the Nationalists 
claimed to be the " only true and faithful friends of 
the Boers," and relieved the Government of the 
burden of championing popular sentiment. 

w -)? w 4^ ^ 

Kruger, who was travelling from South Africa by a 
Dutch steamer, the Gelderland, was to be landed at 
Marseilles, his first continental visit being intended 
for the President of the great European Republic. 
His choice was most embarrassing for the mayors and 
responsible people of Marseilles and of the towns on 
the Riviera. The English boycott, during a season, of 
the Riviera winter resorts had entailed a very serious 
loss to the inhabitants, and the revival of friendly 
Anglo-French relations had therefore been watched 
by them with keen appreciation. There were no 
doubt some among the population who had sacrificed 
their local interests to sentiment in a deplorable 
manner. The strangest case which came under my 
notice was that of an Englishman who told me that 
on asking for a first-class ticket at Nice the ticket 

186 



THE DAWN OF BETTER FEELING 

clerk had thrown him a third-class ticket and told 
him that a third-class carriage was good enough for a 
sale Anglais ; but he was not necessarily a Nicois ! 

To dissociate their municipalities from any anti- 
English manifestations into which the Marseilles 
people might be drawn by the exuberance of their 
sympathy with the Boers, the councils of Hyeres on 
October 30, Cannes on November 4, and Menton on 
November 10, passed public resolutions expressing 
their thanks to me for my efforts to promote good-will 
between the two nations in terms which left no doubt 
as to the pro-English sympathies of the civic repre- 
sentatives of the three health resorts in question. 

On November 16, at a meeting of the Marseilles City 
Council, my name was again brought up, this time, 
curiously enough, as a counter-weight in the scales 
against the proposed Kruger reception. The report 
on the subject from the Daily Telegraph's special corre- 
spondent at Marseilles gives a vivid picture of the 
conflicting emotions which at the time raged in the 
political bosom of France. I transcribe his interest- 
ing report as a " human document." 

" At the mayor's invitation, I have just been present at a 
meeting of the municipal council. M. Flaissiere (the mayor) 
had arranged a special meeting to allow the question of 
Kruger's reception being broached. The proceedings were 
stormy and Marseilles has never seen such a sitting before. 
' It was almost like the Chamber ' was the remark made. 
The topic of the hour was started by a motion of an extremely 
lengthy description, containing pages of considerations 
condemning the war and concluding with an address of 
respectful salutation to Mr. Kruger. Great applause rewarded 
the mover of the resolution for his labours when he sat down 
after appealing to M. Flaissiere to explain his position. The 
mayor did so, but was wariness and cautiousness incarnate 
The gist of his wily speech was : ' I sympathise with Mr. Kruger, 

187 



THIRTY YEARS 

but mind your p's and q's.' He, M. Flaissiere, would not 
attend the reception and would advise his colleagues to follow 
suit. Several protests were made against the mayor's 
determination, and some violent speeches against the Trans- 
vaal war were delivered. On the other hand, many members 
commended the mayor's words of wisdom, and one councillor 
created a sensation by suddenly jumping up to move as a 
counter-blast to the motion of sympathy with Mr. Kruger a 
vote of thanks to Mr. Barclay on the occasion of the British 
Chambers of Commerce meeting in Paris which brought the 
two nations nearer. At last, after much wrangling quite 
reminding one of the Palais Bourbon, a denunciation of the 
Kruger demonstration as a Nationalist trap for the 
Republicans turned the scales in favour of the cool-headed 
party, and the Council having ' approved the declarations 
of Monsieur le Maire, passed to the order of the day.' This, 
of course, means that neither M. Flaissiere nor the members of 
the Council will attend the reception to Mr. Kruger." 



Neither at Marseilles nor on the occasion of Mr. 
Kruger's appearance in Paris was there a single anti- 
English cry, although the enthusiasm I witnessed in 
Paris seemed dangerously wild, and, although the 
Chamber of Deputies and Senate unanimously adopted 
resolutions of respectful sympathy with the old 
President in his last effort to save his country as such 
from extinction, the Government did the official 
minimum in accordance with the etiquette governing 
incognito State visits. Both President Loubet and M. 
Delcasse were heartily thankful when, on December I, 
he took his departure for Cologne. So was I ; neither 
M. Loubet nor M. Delcasse could have felt greater 
apprehension than I did, lest the work begun with such 
labour, deliberation, and anxiety should be endangered 
by any incident capable of reviving the old enmity. 

It is due to French public opinion to say here, that 
the attitude of its responsible organs was one of 

188 



THE DAWN OF BETTER FEELING 

dignified self-restraint. Though there was deep and 
widespread sympathy with the Boers, Frenchmen 
told me at the time that they had never realised the 
true greatness of England till they saw how she bore 
defeat. In the Figaro, M. Comely, after extolling 
the calm and Christian spirit in which the Boers 
defended their country, wrote : — 

" On their side the English teach us how a great people 
bear reverses, how it considers itself responsible to the world 
to stand by its Government whether in good fortune or mis- 
fortune . . . Sensible men must have sympathy for both 
Boers and English . . . The English are an example for us." 

The Journal des Debats was equally appreciative. 
It said : — 

" We understand perfectly the pride with which the Queen 
points to the patriotic spirit and spontaneous loyalty of all 
her dominions, of even those least interested in the South 
African conflict. There is matter in this for meditation by 
those who, too prompt to take the wish for the fact, already 
predict the downfall of the British Empire. It seems to us 
that the colonial contingents which are flowing in from all 
points of the globe are a proof of manliness and especially of 
cohesion in the British national spirit." 

These are two cuttings I find among my papers, but 
such opinions were expressed by the Temps and other 
papers besides those I have quoted, and these utter- 
ances echoed what all sensible private people thought. 
Thus, belying popular wisdom, it was in some measure 
due to England's reverses rather than to her ultimate 
success that anti-English feeling in connection with 
the Boer war veered round and eventually for all 
practical purposes died out. 



189 



CHAPTER XVII 

A PROPITIOUS MOMENT AND MORE THAN USUAL 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

All the pessimistic anticipations with which it 
opened and apprehensions that disturbed its course 
were dissipated before the end of the first year of the 
new century. The ill-feeling between the English and 
French peoples which had been the one ominous cloud 
on the European horizon had passed over. The 
English after the visit of the British Chambers of 
Commerce to Paris at the beginning of September had 
ceased to boycott the Exhibition. So great, in fact, 
had been the affluence that the Northern and Western 
Railway Companies had to borrow coaches from other 
railway companies to carry the crowds who hurried 
over the Channel during its last weeks to see the most 

wonderful show ever put together. 

# * * * # 

The mourning of the whole British Empire for our 
great Queen in the following January struck a sym- 
pathetic chord in the generous nature of the French. 
That all the political, commercial, industrial life of 
an Empire should stand still even for a few hours to 
express, as it did, the feeling of hundreds of millions 
of her subjects at the loss of their Sovereign produced 
a profound impression in France. 

On the day of the memorial service in Paris all the 
shops in the Quartier de la Paix were shut. Even else- 
where in the gay city there was a universal look of 

190 



A PROPITIOUS MOMENT 

sympathy, and the irrepressible Parisian seemed to 
be less noisy. 

At the meeting of the deceased Queen's subjects, 
held in the large hall of the Hotel Continental, the 
contagiousness of the prevailing emotion was such 
that I could hardly command my voice when, as 
chairman, I opened the proceedings. 

The following report in the Daily Messenger will 
recall to many who took part in it the only occasion 
which had ever been known to bring so many English- 
men in Paris together : — 

" In response to an invitation from the British Chamber 
of Commerce in Paris, a meeting of British residents was 
yesterday held at the Continental Hotel to decide as to a 
common and tangible expression of sympathy with the Royal 
Family on the occasion of the Queen's death. Between 
eight hundred and a thousand persons were present, and the 
meeting was in every respect a most notable one. 

" Mr. Thomas Barclay, president of the Chamber of Com- 
merce, presided. In opening the proceedings, he said : — 

" In asking you to come together for the purpose which 
has been announced in the newspapers, I feel sure the board 
of the British Chamber of Commerce, as the largest and most 
representative body of Englishmen in Paris, has given 
expression to what is uppermost in every loyal British heart. 
The Queen has been to us more than a sovereign. She has 
been the embodiment of all that in the public or private life 
of men and women of our race we hold to be sacred. From 
the earliest recollection of the oldest of us she has been the 
model and pride of her nation. We have remembered her 
in our prayers, and we have never forgotten her in our joys. 
Her image as a wife, a mother, and Queen, as a mother and 
as a grandmother of Kings and Queens, has been our most 
familiar figure throughout our lives. We have always held 
her without a single reservation in the honoured first place 
of the national heart. And wherever the national heart beats, 
there is a sense of loss which we can only feel for those whose 
love and care for us never failed. To cease all our daily 
wranglings and differences, and stand together as one man in 
this hour of mourning is what all England, all the Empire, is 

I 9 I 



THIRTY YEARS 

doing, and we, who love England none the less because we 
are in a foreign land, feel the same need to express the grief 
we have in common. 

" This is the object of calling the present meeting. When 
the grave is closed over our late beloved Sovereign, it will be 
for us to meet again and consider what permanent form our 
devotion to her memory shall take. I am authorised by 
Sir E. Monson to say that his Excellency will lend the Embassy 
for the purpose of this second meeting, and that he will consent 
to take the chair. I, therefore, propose to you to confine our 
action at this meeting to the adoption of an address of 
sympathy, and to express a wish that the Ambassador will 
hereafter take the lead in holding the meeting for the purpose 
I have mentioned. I have ventured to express what I take 
to be your wishes in the following draft address : — 

" ' We, the undersigned British residents in Paris, place 
on record our profound grief at the loss of our beloved Queen^ 
whose long and glorious reign and noble public and private 
life will make her memory everlasting in the hearts of her 
subjects. We wish to express our deep sympathy with their 
Gracious Majesties the King and Queen and the other members 
of the Royal Family in their bereavement. 

" ' We take this opportunity also to express our loyalty to 
the Queen's illustrious successor and trust that his reign may 
be long and prosperous.' 

" It has been thought that many British subjects in Paris 
would like to append their names personally to testimony of a 
nature so personal to us all. The address is therefore drawn 
up with a view to being signed, but this is merely a suggestion, 
and the meeting is, of course, free to decide otherwise. 

" I should like, before sitting down, to express a regret 
which I believe is shared by all present, that the venerable 
doyen of the British Colony and hon. president of the British 
Chamber of Commerce, Sir Edward Blount, is prevented by 
absence in England, and his great age, from being at this 
meeting. He has always been among us on national occasions, 
and I feel sure that in spirit he is more than ever among us on 
the infinitely sad occasion which has brought us together 
to-day. 

" I should like also, in conclusion, to mention the deep and 
widespread sympathy with us in our mourning shown through- 
out France, and the expressions of warm admiration and deep 
respect for the Queen which her death has called forth. 
Englishmen will ever remember this with gratitude, and if 

192 



A PROPITIOUS MOMENT 

at any time of late we may have doubted the real feeling 
of France and of Frenchmen, we now know that it is 
one of delicate and earnest sympathy for us when we 
need it." 

Sir Edward Sassoon, M.P., in seconding the resolution, 
referred with emotion to the feeling of the whole British race 
and to the deep interest her Majesty had taken in the life of 
the nation. In conclusion he recalled to our minds the good 
work done by Mr. Thomas Barclay and the British Chamber 
of Commerce in Paris over which he presides, in promoting good 
feeling between France and England, and he referred with 
unfeigned satisfaction to the deep sympathy which the 
French nation had shown in these circumstances. He was 
convinced that no two nations were better fitted to be on 
terms of solid friendship with each other. 

Mr. Hector Fabre, Canadian Commissioner in Paris, who, 
as a French Canadian, spoke in French, endorsed in every 
way all that had been said by the previous speakers. The 
Queen's loss, he said, was as much felt among French Canadians 
as by any others of the late Queen's subjects. 

The Master of the Anglo-Saxon Lodge in Paris, in the name 
of the British Freemasons in France, also expressed himself 
in terms of the warmest sympathy. 

The motion was then put to the meeting and unanimously 
carried, the great majority of those present appending their 
signatures. 

The Queen's death took place just thirteen months 
after the publication of the famous caricatures which 
had caused such indignation in England. The change 
in the public attitude of Frenchmen towards this 
country showed that the seeds of a rapprochement had 
already taken root. 

* # # # * 

Never in my time had circumstances seemed more 
favourable for the starting of a vast popular agitation 
for the burying of the Anglo-French hatchet. Unfor- 
tunately no occasion for any specific demonstration 
was in sight. At the Quai d'Orsay, moreover, there 
was a conviction that Lord Salisbury, who still 

T.Y. I93 O 



THIRTY YEARS 

controlled British foreign policy, did not believe an 
enduring entente possible. Sir Edmund Monson's 
attitude in 1900 seemed at best to reflect an incredu- 
lous indifference. After his unfortunate " pin-prick- 
ing " speech, I thought it best not to give him a chance 
of speaking again for the time being. Therefore, 
during my tenure of office as president of the Chamber 
of Commerce, the annual banquet was suspended. 

I believe I once heard " luck " defined as a courage- 
ous insight into the capabilities of a chance. At any 
rate, I have always so regarded luck. Chances of all 
kinds and qualities abound. The difficulty is just to 
distinguish among them. I was on the look-out for a 
chance to launch the great idea that England and 
France by their geographical position, by their 
political affinities, by their differences of character 
which made them indispensable to each other's 
intellectual development, by the divergency of their 
industrial and artistic activity which made the one 
the complement of the other, had a joint and not a 
competing mission in the world ; that they would 
benefit as much by their friendship as they were losing 
by their antagonism ; that England and France as 
democracies, having nothing to gain by war, were 
necessarily agents of peace ; and that their friendship 
would be a first step towards the abatement of those 
armaments which the Emperor of Russia in 1898 had 
justly described as " a crushing burden more and 
more difficult for nations to bear." 



Somewhere about 1 894 1 had drawn up the following 
plan of action on how to make England and France 
friends : — 

194 



A PROPITIOUS MOMENT 

1. Work first on the Franco-Scottish tradition. Form a 
Franco-Scottish Society based on the historic relations between 
France and Scotland. We must assume that a great deal of 
correspondence exists buried in the family archives of the 
two countries ; the letters from France would be in Scotland 
and the letters from Scotland in France. The Franco- 
Scottish Society to work at uniting the scattered fragments. 
Visits to be exchanged between the Scotch and French. 
Opportunities to be utilised of drawing the English into the 
work. 

2. Great Britain and France have conflicts of interest 
nearly all over the globe — Egypt, Morocco, New Hebrides, 
New Caledonia, French shore, etc. They cannot be solved 
while bad feeling exists, but might easily be solved if the 
two peoples were friendly, especially the most acute of them, 
the Egyptian question being sentimental. 

3. To produce a better feeling, necessary to have an object 
of a non-material character which people can agree about 
without any sacrifice of interest on either side. Such a rally- 
ing point might be a permanent treaty of arbitration between 
the two countries. Favourable points : — 

(a) England best customer of France ; (b) A certain 
esteem in both countries for individual persons of the other ; 
(c) Familiarity with and admiration for each other's litera- 
ture ; (d) Increasing interest of Frenchmen in English 
sports. 

4. Necessity of proceeding without exciting opposition or 
jealousy of authorities. First steps to be as secret as possible. 

5. Most useful agencies : (a) Chambers of Commerce in 
England and France ; (b) Municipal Councils in France ; 
(c) Trade Unions in England ; (d) Leading Politicians ; 
(<?) Special Committees. 

6. Method. — Articles in Periodicals exciting interest in the 
subject ; Interviews in Newspapers, Public Addresses in 
Great Britain and France ; not to approach English until 
French secure, and only do that when evidence overwhelming. 

8. No Central Committee and no subscriptions. 

9. To Publish Results only. 



In short, my idea had been and still was to create 
an atmosphere favourable for the removal of causes 
of friction and place the future of the two countries 

195 o 2 



THIRTY YEARS 

beyond the reach of popular emotions by the con- 
clusion of a standing Treaty of Arbitration. 
# # * * # 

In February, 190 1, 1 was approached by my friend, 
M. Decugis, hon. secretary of the French Arbitration 
Society, of which M. Frederic Passy was the president, 
with a view to my delivering the address at their 
annual meeting in March. Here was the chance for 
which I was on the look-out. An idea discounted 
by public announcement beforehand loses its most 
dramatic and stirring quality, if striking the public 
imagination is any part of its purpose. My activities, 
moreover, had been employed in connection with 
trade and the law, and I had never had any connection 
with " pacifism." I did not know how the Arbitration 
Society would regard my highly unsentimental argu- 
ments, and said nothing of my object. The 27th of 
March was destined to be an even more memorable 
date in the history of the entente than I anticipated, 
in spite of its tribulations. I had counted on the 
emphasis of a large meeting of the advocates of arbi- 
tration and on many speeches by Frenchmen favour- 
able to the cause of Anglo-French friendship. In this 
expectation I was disappointed. 

The snow lay thick on the ground, horse traffic 
had stopped, intermittent gusts still blinded foot 
passengers, and when I arrived at the meeting place at 
the Mairie of the Rue Drouot I was alone. In a few 
minutes, however, arrived that grand old octogenarian 
Frederic Passy, the chairman. Together, for a time, 
we sat, desolate before an anaemic fire, and it looked 
as if he would have to take the chair and I should be 
all his audience, and he in turn mine, when the distin- 
guished and genial Professor Richet (whose scientific 

196 



PROPITIOUS MOMENT 

researches were recently rewarded with the Nobel 
research prize), the vice-president, turned up, then 
Professor Georges Lyon, now rector of the University 
of Lille and nominal head of the " Institut francais du 
Royaume-Uni," which has recently been constituted a 
branch of the University of Lille, M. Decugis, the hon. 
secretary, and a few others whose names I am sorry 
to have forgotten. M. Passy, who after my address 
took me in his arms and with tears in his eyes blessed 
the cause I had advocated, in his book " Pour la 
Paix," l referred to that auspicious meeting and my 
connection with it in the following terms : — 

" Sir Thomas Barclay, the principal author perhaps of the 
' rapprochement ' brought about between France and England 
which has been called ' V entente cordiale,' threw out the first 
idea of it in the basement of a Paris district town-hall, in the 
presence of some fifteen members of the ' Societe francaise pour 
l'Arbitrage,' who had not been daunted by a fearful snowstorm. 
Every one knows what an impression was produced on the 
reading of his address the following days in the newspapers 
and how since then with incomparable activity, perseverance 
and zeal, as an orator and a writer equally familiar with his 
mother tongue and the French language, as a jurist and 
member of the Institute of International Law, as a man of 
business and former president of the British Chamber of 
Commerce in Paris, he has pursued everywhere, in America 
as in Europe, and as far as the Balkans and the Ottoman East, 
his campaign of public and private propaganda which has 
brought him, with the favour of his Sovereign, a popularity 
of the noblest kind." 



But our poor little meeting was discouraging, and 
it was with la mort dans fame, so far as that meeting 
was concerned, that I left our enthusiastic friends 
that night. 

A few doors from the Mairie, however, were the 

1 Paris, 1909. 
I97 



THIRTY YEARS 

offices of the Figaro. I knew the then editor, M. de 
Rodays, pretty well, and after the meeting it occurred 
to me to go round to his office and take him into my 
confidence. 

" C'est un beau reve," he said, " mais il y a toujours 
l'Egypte. Vous ne pouvez pas l'evacuer et nous ne 
pouvons pas agreer votre prise de possession. Que 
voulez vous ? C'est une question sans solution. 
D'ailleurs, ce n'est pas la seule question internationale 
sans solution et malheureusement il ne faut pas trop 
attendre de la sagesse humaine. Le sentiment trop 
souvent prime la sagesse dans l'opinion publique." 

However, I left my manuscript with him, and the 
next day no one was more astonished than I to see it 
appear with flaming head-lines as the first columns 
of the first page of the Figaro. 

The impression produced was as if thousands had 
attended the meeting, as if overflow meetings had had 
to be improvised in adjoining premises, as if I had been 
carried off my feet by an acclaiming and enthusiastic 
multitude. 

Our poor little meeting in the basement of the 
Mairie became historic ! 

I had scored owing to the luck of good causes which 
make effort and imagination worth while — thanks, 
however, especially to the courage and foresight of 
M. de Rodays, who had seen, he said, in the gleam of 
my eyes the determination to go on. 

■afr <t jfe afc jfc 

From one end of France to the other the newspapers 
reproduced my speech with luxurious publicity, but 
without a single comment. The direction of public 
feeling was still problematic. 

The leading British newspapers took the same 

198 



A PROPITIOUS MOMENT 

cautious attitude. Curiously it was The Times 
correspondent in Paris who ventured farthest. I 
give his telegram, which not only contains his com- 
ments, but the chief points which I urged : — 

" Paris, March 28. 

" The meeting of the French Arbitration Society was held 
last night at the Mairie of the 9th Arrondissement. I extract 
from the Figaro some passages of the speech delivered by 
Mr. Thomas Barclay in favour of obligatory arbitration on all 
matters which may be a cause of dispute between France and 
Great Britain. Mr. Barclay did not extend his observations 
to the relations between nations in general. As France and 
Great Britain are the two countries which he knows best and 
whose agreement he most desires, he was able to urge many 
excellent reasons for arbitration. Even those who look upon 
such an idea as a forlorn hope, rather than as of probable or 
even possible realisation, should heartily welcome any attempt 
of this sort. These ideas, if constantly repeated with sincerity, 
gradually end by penetrating people's minds and securing 
adherence. Such language as the following, therefore, should 
be unreservedly applauded, for it cannot but do good by 
showing how keenly humane minds long for the day when 
war, that persistent relic of barbarism, will end by becoming 
in the eyes of the majority an accursed evil which we are bound 
to undergo, but against which every one worthy of the name 
of man should unceasingly protest. Mr. Barclay said : — 

" ' The proposal that I wish to put before you is that of an 
arbitration treaty between England and France. Four years 
ago the Governments of Great Britain and of the United 
States drew up an agreement of this nature, but it has never 
been ratified by the Senate of the latter country. The two 
Governments had thought that two countries so closely 
connected as America and England by the American colonies 
must necessarily be exposed to constant small differences 
happening in their relationships, and that such opposed 
interests must inevitably increase with the development of 
such relationships. Unfortunately, there are many Americans 
who have made an article of constitutional faith out of the 
Monroe doctrine. This doctrine possesses the quality of all 
unwritten doctrines and of doctrines not sufficiently defined 
to allow of their being interpreted suitably to the political 
tactics of the moment. There is no Monroe doctrine between 

199 



THIRTY YEARS 

England and France. On the other hand, there exist at least 
as many points where the two nations touch as exist between 
the American colonies of Great Britain and the United States. 
Their territories and their political interests lie side by side 
in North America, in South America, in Asia, and very 
nearly so in Europe. There do not exist in the world two 
countries knitted together by a closer intercourse. . . . 
Happily, a war between England and France is an eventuality 
of which the terrible consequences for the two countries are 
so evident that one does not lightly plunge into it. And yet 
war sometimes breaks out for the slightest of causes when 
public feeling is agitated, and in Democratic countries Govern- 
ments are often urged on by forces which do not look far 
ahead. Now the advantage of an arbitration treaty is exactly 
that it furnishes the means to allow the public spirit to calm 
down or, in familiar parlance, it allows the Government to 
gain time. It allows of pourparlers, exchanges of ideas, 
negotiations in due form, mediators' proposals, and of 
arbitration should the parties not agree, and in the mean- 
time the hot-headed ones cool down. . . . 

" ' Such a treaty between England and France might well 
serve as an example of a new departure in these matters. 
In the place of two Anglo-Saxon States it would be Great 
Britain and France, which would bring about one of the 
greatest triumphs of international law which our age has 
seen. It would only be perfectly natural that the two great 
and time-honoured nations which stand at the head of civilisa- 
tion should lead the way which leads on to the extinction of 
all war, that foolish and barbarous method which, as a rule, is 
only the result of the incapacity of statesmen who allow it to 
break out. You will have noticed that I have not spoken 
of the Hague Convention. I have not done so because the 
optional recourse provided by this convention strips arbitra- 
tion, primarily, of the advantage which it possesses. Further, 
the disputes which generally give rise to war, such as questions 
in which honour and vital interests of the contracting 
parties are involved, are excluded from its operation. That 
which is necessary, in fact, in a general treaty of arbitration 
is that the parties bind themselves without any reservation 
not to take up arms one against the other before having tried 
pacific means ; and one cannot see why there should be any 
reservation, since it is rather the procedure than the decision 
which constitutes the merit of such an arrangement. To 
leave one of the parties free to determine whether a case is 

200 



A PROPITIOUS MOMENT 

provided for in the treaty or not, or whether circumstances 
allow of arbitration, is to destroy the most essential application 
of the treaty.' " 

# # # # # 

I now made arrangements to devote all my time 
and means henceforward to my self-imposed task. 

The following resolution, which I drew up as a sort 
of model form, was the first English one adopted : — 

" That the board of the British Chamber of Commerce in 
Paris hereby records its hearty approval of the proposal for 
a general Treaty of Arbitration between the United Kingdom 
and France ; that in view of the great advantages which 
would accrue to the commercial relations of the two countries, 
by the adoption of such a proposal, this board declares its 
readiness to co-operate by all means in its power towards the 
accomplishment of so beneficial a result." 

The first response, however, came from the French 
peace societies, thirteen of which by an identical 
declaration promised to neglect no influence which 
could promote attention to the subject on the part of 
Government and of public opinion. The second was 
a resolution of the Chamber of Commerce of Clermont- 
Ferrand. The third was a resolution in favour of the 
proposed treaty adopted on June 15, at the famous 
meeting at Shoreditch Town Hall, of delegates of 
English and French trade associations. It was moved 
by Mr. Gregory, chairman of the London Trades 
Council, who presided, and seconded by Mr. F. 
Maddison. 1 

Meanwhile I had installed a staff and an ingenious 
rotary machine by which I could turn out hundreds 
of copies of matter for distribution. With an English 
printer I had also made arrangements for printing ad 

1 See the support given to the proposal, Appendices, pp. 346 et seq. 

201 



THIRTY YEARS 

libitum, and before the autumn the campaign was in 
full swing. 

My life for the next two years was one of wild 
activity, a life of sleeping in trains, speaking some- 
times several times a day, sometimes twice in one 
evening. I invented (oh, mother necessity !) a quick- 
change shirt, a quick-change " dickie," a quick-change 
tie, a travelling bag adapted to my requirements, and 
at all times packed and ready for use at a moment's 
notice. In America it amused my friends to see me 
turn into evening dress, quite decent enough to pass 
muster, in less than ten minutes. 

One day an American who was present at one of 
my " quick-change " scenes proclaimed my shirt 
patentable and worth a fortune. I gave him one to 
work upon. He came back from an expedition to a 
great shirt purveyor quite crestfallen. " My dear 
sir," had said this authority, " it is not a i quick- 
change ' shirt that is wanted, but a slow-change one. 
The more a man has to struggle with buttons and 
button-holes, the better he likes it. The one thing 
he does not want to shorten is the time it takes him 
to turn himself into evening dress. Why, the time 
he is dressing is the happiest of his life. It is the 
time when undisturbed he can pose and see himself 
in all his beauty. It is a more, not a less, complicated 
shirt that is wanted. All you ambulant politicians and 
public speakers, sir, do not use shirts enough to pay 
the wages of a doorkeeper ! " My friend all the same 
suspected he was " done." However, as I seem still 
to be the only wearer of my " quick-change " shirts, 
the psychological assessment of the shirt purveyor 
was probably correct, In any case, as a young friend 

202 



A PROPITIOUS MOMENT 

courteously declined a dozen I had respectfully 
offered him, I am afraid we old fogies know nothing 
about the subtleties of modern dressing. 

Three elements are essential, apart from choice of 
a propitious moment, for success in agitation. The 
one is never to publish to the world an isolated resolu- 
tion. Several keep each other company and encourage 
others. Another is never to take anybody into one's 
confidence during negotiations and expose oneself to 
the danger of " hearsay." And the third is not to 
ask for funds ! I might add a fourth, a fifth and a 
sixth, but they belong to character and circumstances, 
viz., to go on quand meme, not be impatient, and 
to be able to give all one's time, imagination, and 
energy to the work. Nor must one be daunted by the 
exertion of travelling and speaking day after day at 
places hundreds of miles apart from each other, nor 
by considerations of a financial character, nor by the 
innuendoes of jealousy, nor by the sarcastic inquiries 
of anonymous correspondents who ask you how much 
you are making out of it, 1 etc., etc. 

Following my own principles to the best of my 
ability, I was able before the end of the year to enlist 
the interest in the subject of practically all the 
chambers of commerce in the two countries and obtain 
unanimous resolutions in support of my proposal 
from the Association of Chambers of Commerce of 
the United Kingdom and the International Law 
Association after full discussions. That which took 
place at the meeting of the International Law 
Association gave my respected friend, Lord Alverstone, 

1 For the benefit of these low-minded gentry, I may say that, far from 
bringing me any personal gain, the agitation obliged me to return to my 
profession after it was over, and practically begin life over again. 

203 



THIRTY YEARS 

an opportunity of making one of his best and most 
effective speeches. In 1902 the movement reached 
a more effective condition, as will be seen in the 
next chapter. 

In French domestic politics the year 1901 was an 
agitated one. Of the forty ministries which had 
preceded that of M. Waldeck-Rousseau since 1870 
only three had reached the hoary age of two years, 
viz., those of M. Thiers (1871 — 1873), M. Jules Ferry 
(1883— 1885), and M. Meline (1896— 1898). The 
Waldeck-Rousseau Cabinet, which had come into office 
in June, 1899, was already fifteen months old when the 
Exhibition closed its doors. It was not expected at 
the time to last much longer. Yet it withstood every 
effort to upset it, and long before the close of 1901 had 
broken the record without showing any signs of 
exhaustion. Its long life it owed, however, not so 
much to its friends as to the carping opposition of its 
enemies and the presence in it, alongside a strong 
Prime Minister, of M. Millerand, a Socialist leader as 
strong as his chief. Waldeck-Rousseau, who had 
been one of Gambetta's discoveries and had served 
in the grand ministere, belonged, like Clemenceau, to 
an old Breton bourgeois family. The fathers of these 
two men, who were destined to be opponents, had 
espoused the cause of political freedom together at 
Nantes. After having formed part of M. Ferry's 
cabinet, the long duration of which has been attri- 
buted in large part to his presence in it, as the 
presence of Millerand in his own, later on, was credited 
with the same effect, Waldeck-Rousseau did not 
again take office and in 1889 retired from politics 
altogether for the time being to devote himself to his 

204 



A PROPITIOUS MOMENT 

profession and his favourite pastime, painting. I 
knew him only slightly. He was an easy first at the 
Bar, especially as he did not wish to over-exert him- 
self, and charged fabulous fees to keep clients at bay. 
In France the advocate, can receive his instructions 
from the lay client direct, and as often as not it 
is he who instructs the avoue (solicitor). When 
Waldeck-Rousseau yielded to the solicitations of 
his friends and returned to Parliament to take the 
^residence du conseil, he was said to be giving up an 
income of over half a million francs (£20,000) a year. 
It was as much this enormous material sacrifice as any 
other circumstances that appealed to his countrymen's 
gratitude and secured the free hand they gave him. 
His aristocratic features, grave demeanour, and dis- 
dain for mean or vulgar methods gave him an influence 
in the French Parliament not unlike that of Sir 
Edward Grey in the House of Commons. He was 
more respected and authoritative than popular. 
Nobody was ever known to take a liberty with 
him, and he was never known to descend to 
personalities even in the keenest moments of debate. 
His impenetrable mask, business-like concentration 
on the matter in hand, and mastery of terse technical 
language so absorbed the attention of his listeners 
that interruption or frivolity had no sense. 

An interesting fact about Waldeck-Rousseau is that 
after the Tongking disasters in 1885 it was he who 
suggested to M. Grevy that, as Clemenceau had 
shaken the Ferry Cabinet off its pedestal, the President 
of the Republic ought, in accordance with parlia- 
mentary logic, to entrust Clemenceau with the forma- 
tion of the new ministry, but M. Grevy regarded this 
as an experiment it would be dangerous to try with a 

205 



THIRTY YEARS 

man of the temperament of the demolisseur des minis- 
teres. In my opinion this was M. Grevy's second 

great tactical mistake. 

# * # # # 

In foreign affairs Waldeck-Rousseau took but a 
limited personal interest. M. Delcasse's experience 
at the Quai d'Orsay in the three preceding cabinets, 
though it had only lasted a year, seemed to him the 
best available. But I always understood that he 
insisted on all the members of his cabinet referring to 
him before taking any decisions of a political character, 
and that the President was left no discretion at all. 

The announcement in August, 1901, that the Czar 
and Czarina were about to pay a visit to France sur- 
prised everybody, and the emphasis with which it 
was officially stated that they were coming in response 
to a personal letter of invitation, sent by the President 
of the Republic during the absence of the Prime 
Minister, that the invitation conveyed had been to 
" be present at the conclusion of the manoeuvres " in 
the neighbourhood of Rheims, that they would be 
entertained at the Palace of Compiegne 1 and be 
saluted on arrival at Dunkirk by the Channel fleet, 
seemed to cover some truth which the public would 
not appreciate or some diplomatic manoeuvre which 
had to be disguised. 

It was whispered that the Czar had invited himself 
to make up for his not having visited the Exhibition 
the previous year, but that the date had been so 
chosen as to avoid the need of receiving His Majesty 

1 Their Majesties arrived on their yacht at Dunkirk on September 18, 
1901, where they were met by the President and the French Channel fleet. 
From Dunkirk they travelled with the President to stay three days at 
Compiegne. When the Czar visited Paris in 1895 he stayed at the Russian 
Embassy. 

206 



A PROPITIOUS MOMENT 

in Paris, and that the President had shouldered the 
responsibility to shelter the Prime Minister, in case 
any parliamentary incident should arise out of it. 

Certain it is that no more unpropitious moment 
could have been chosen to entertain the Russian 
monarch ; nor did the visit serve any purpose. In 
Paris the Nationalist and Socialist forces were in no 
mood to co-operate in the reception of a monarch who 
was the ideal of the one and the abomination of the 
other. And this was no theoretical fear, seeing that 
several resolutions were adopted at Socialist meetings 
requesting all right-thinking people to abstain from 
manifestation in honour of " the Russian despot." 
So great was the official dread of effervescence that 
the Government was announced to intend taking the 
precaution of posting troops along the whole length 
of the railway track from Dunkirk to Compiegne. 

I attended the review at Dunkirk as a guest of the 
Northern of France Railway Company on board their 
boat Le Nord. At the conclusion of the function all 
the company's guests were conveyed back to Paris in 
special trains by the ordinary route from Dunkirk, 
whereas the Government party were to travel by the 
specially guarded route to Compiegne. To the sur- 
prise of everybody — our party was composed of 
Senators, Deputies, high officials, and journalists — our 
train was suddenly shunted to make way for two 
special trains, and we saw the Imperial guests and 
their entertainers speeded by our route instead of by 
the specially guarded one ! Everybody exclaimed : — 
" C'est Lepine qui a du combiner ca ; il est fort ! " 
M. Lepine was the dexterous and indefatigable Prefet 
de Police who recently, after years of service in the 
most delicate of administrative posts, retired from it 

207 



THIRTY YEARS 

to devote himself to the study of the economic con- 
ditions of France, which have always been the pet 
subject of any leisure he could command. Unlike 
Waldeck-Rousseau, whose hobby was landscape paint- 
ing, or M. Leon Bourgeois, whose hobby is sculpture, 1 
M. Lepine's delight is moral and economic statistics. 
Some day this remarkable man, who is still within the 
prime of his life, may turn his unrivalled knowledge 
of the social conditions of Paris to the production of 
some work which will bear comparison with Mr. 
Charles Booth's priceless researches among the con- 
ditions of London life. 

1 M. Leon Bourgeois' work in sculpture is quite remarkable. Nothing 
could be more touching than a figure of a seated girl in distress with her 
long hair flowing over her fingers which he presented to a friend of mine 
on her marriage. 



208 



CHAPTER XVIII 

FIGHTING FOR PEACE 

At the end of 1901 I had a serious disappointment. 
The British Chamber of Commerce seceded from the 
agitation. My successor as president, Mr. W. C. 
Robertson, had more trust in Sir Edmund Monson's 
speeches than I had, and, anyhow, the annual 
banquets could not be suspended until he retired. 
In December, 1901, Sir Edmund had his chance again, 
and again in his speech at the Chamber of Commerce 
banquet he struck a false note. That would not have 
mattered much. But, when I presented a petition in 
favour of the Treaty for signature by the Chamber of 
Commerce, Mr. Robertson pointed out to me that the 
chamber could not afford to estrange the Ambassador 
and the chamber would have henceforward to keep 
aloof from the Anglo-French movement. This was a 
great loss, and, till the King's visit was announced, 
the chamber took no further part in it. 

Shortly after Sir Edmund Monson's speech, in 
which he had thrown cold water on the effort to bring 
about a rapprochement by means of a standing Treaty 
of Arbitration, I met M. Delcasse at Baron Pierre de 
Coubertin's. The occasion was a reception in honour 
of my old friend, Sir Charles Dilke, and his newly 
married wife. 

" Vous n'etes pas decourage ? " asked M. Delcasse. 

" Le moins du monde." 

M. Delcasse repeated his fear that I should find the 
British Government sceptical and the people hostile. 

t.y. 209 p 

F 



THIRTY YEARS 

A couple of months later I mentioned this in 
London to M. Cambon. He confirmed more or less 
the view M. Delcasse had expressed, and it was no 
doubt true at the outset of the agitation when Lord 
Salisbury still presided at the Foreign Office. He and 
M. Delcasse had also been Foreign Ministers of their 
respective countries at the time of the Fashoda affair, 
and I think I am not divulging a State secret when I 
say that the tactics of Lord Salisbury, in forcing France 
to a rapid denoument of the incident by hastily pub- 
lishing the correspondence on the subject, and exciting 
British public opinion before the French Government 
had time to attune French public opinion to a pacific 
settlement, was still resented. Lord Salisbury had no 
faith in Anglo-French friendship, and the spirit of his 
policy still continued to dictate the attitude of 
Downing Street after his surrender of the Foreign 
Secretaryship to Lord Lansdowne in 1900, and until 
1902 when he finally withdrew from office and handed 
over the reins of government to Mr. Balfour. It was 
therefore rather Lord Salisbury's views than those of 
the new Foreign Secretary that the well-wishers of 
the entente sought to ascertain during the first year of 
agitation. A diplomatic inquiry resulted in one of 
those ironical, half-jocular fins-de-non-re cevoir of the 
late Lord which made further discussion impossible. 
His answer, while jovial in tone, was as laconic as it 
was emphatic. " C'est de l'utopie ! " and there the 
matter ended. M. Delcasse repeated the answer to 
me as a proof of the hopelessness of trying to conciliate 
England. 

On July 12, 1902, Lord Salisbury finally retired 
from office and Lord Lansdowne had thenceforward 

210 



FIGHTING FOR PEACE 

practically a free hand under a Prime Minister who 
was not likely to be a drag on the initiative of his 
colleagues. 

In the previous May I had written to Lord Lans- 
downe and Sir Edmund Monson, sending them a 
printed report I had issued respecting the progress of 
the movement. 

Sir Edmund Monson I thought might now show 
more sympathy with a movement which he had 
affected to regard merely as an arbitration " fad." 
He could no longer, like Lord Salisbury, consider an 
entente impossible. 

His interesting reply, however, was confined to the 
question of arbitration. 

His opinion he said had always been that the Con- 
vention which was rejected by the U.S. Senate was 
not simple enough, and that as long as human nature 
remained what it was, such a Convention as desired 
would have to contain the " tiers arbitre " pro- 
vision. 

He was convinced that the Venezuela Board of 
Arbitration would have been broken up re infecta % 
had not a Russian been added to the British and 
American members. 

Some day the reign of universal impartiality and 
righteousness might set in, and persons be found who 
would venture to set equity before national pride. 
Meanwhile, he did not believe in arbitration without 
the " tiers arbitre," pace the authors of the abortive 
treaty, which seemed stultified by the recognition of 
the eventual necessity of having recourse to the 
good offices of the King of Sweden. 

I wrote at the same time to Lord Lansdowne, whose 
reply was very different — so different that I took it at 

211 P 2 



THIRTY YEARS 

once to the Quai d'Orsay and showed it to M. Delcasse, 
who then and there instructed M. Cambon in accord- 
ance with the feeling expressed in it. 

Lord Lansdowne wrote on May 20 from Bowood 
as follows : — 

" I have had the pleasure of receiving your letter of May 17 
enclosing a copy in English of your Note on the proposal for 
a permanent Treaty of Arbitration between this country and 
France. 

" Lord Alverstone has spoken to me on several occasions 
of this movement and of the part which you have taken in it, 
and I shall be glad to receive you on my return to London. 
Meanwhile I can only express my entire concurrence in your 
belief that whatever may be the ultimate fate of the proposal, 
its discussion in a friendly spirit can do nothing but good." 

# # # # # 

Throughout the second year of my campaign I 
devoted all my energies to carrying out my plan of 
action. I kept the Press so busy with articles on the 
entente, with resolutions in its favour by chambers of 
commerce, municipal corporations, trade unions, etc., 
with meetings and speeches I delivered throughout 
the two countries, with local committees formed, with 
interviews, etc., that not a day passed but the public 
had something to digest on the subject. In most 
cases I submitted a model form which was the result 
of much consideration by others besides myself. 
Both Lord Chief Justice Alverstone and my late 
friend, Mr. Montague Crackanthorpe, K.C., one of 
our best draftsmen, gave me the benefit of their advice 
upon it, and it may be regarded as a statement of 
the Anglo-French case which commended itself with 
singular effect to the British practical mind. I may 
safely say that it summed up and defined the objects 
of all the unofficial world of England who joined in 

212 



FIGHTING FOR PEACE 

the agitation, and, as will be seen below, this meant 
every class and manner of men in the Kingdom. 
The model form in question was as follows : — 

" i. Considering that Great Britain and France have 
common interests of a commercial and industrial kind, the 
prosperity of which is dependent upon the preservation of 
peace between them ; and 

" 2. Whereas France is the nearest neighbour of the British 
Isles, and war between two countries so situated must 
inevitably produce, whatever its ultimate result might be, 
disastrous consequences for both of them ; and 

" 3. Whereas British and French colonial possessions and 
dependencies touch in most parts of the globe, and the peaceful 
and friendly development of intercourse between them is for 
their mutual benefit ; and 

" 4. Whereas difficulties and contentions must necessarily 
arise between two peoples who are so often brought into 
rivalry, and it is desirable that some means be employed to 
prevent such difficulties and contentions from again assuming 
the dangerous character they have several times assumed in 
recent years ; and 

" 5. Whereas it seems certain that public irritation would be 
less likely to be inflamed by international difficulties which 
ordinary diplomacy may not have solved, if provision were 
made for reference of such difficulties to a further stage of 
consideration by which the danger of a deadlock might still 
be averted ; and 

" 6. Whereas the permanent Treaty for the adjustment of 
differences between Great Britain and the United States, 
signed on the 12th January, 1897, by the representatives of 
the Governments of the two nations, providing for the 
automatic reference of disputes of national importance to a 
court composed of judges belonging exclusively to the two 
nations themselves, seems adapted to supply what is required ; 
and a tribunal so constituted would be a guarantee to the 
general public that no vital national interest would be 
imperilled by considerations of abstract justice or on purely 
humanitarian grounds ; and 

" 7. Whereas if such a Treaty was desirable as between 
Great Britain and the United States, it must also be desirable 
as between Great Britain and France, whose intercourse with 
one another is still closer ; and 

" 8. Whereas the present moment is propitious on both sides 

213 



THIRTY YEARS 

of the Channel for the conclusion of such a Treaty for (say) 
a period of five years, and much authoritative opinion is 
clearly in its favour ; 

" This records its approval of the proposal 

to adopt some arrangement between this country and France 
which would diminish the danger of the friction necessarily 
arising from time to time from their intercourse." 

Nothing in this resolution, it is seen, justified the 
subsequent perversion by mischievous persons of the 
\ objects of those who supported the agitation. 

Never was there an idea among them of a joining 
of forces against another Power. The rapprochement 
had the exclusive and deliberate object of counter- 
acting hostile tendencies between Great Britain and 
France. Its sole object was to bury the hatchet 
between them without arriere-pensee. Nor did any- 
body in England imagine that it might ever be used as 
leverage against a third Power. Even in France, the 
only suggestion of a " pointe " against Germany was 
an observation by M. de Pressense that the entente 
would save England from joining the Triple Alliance. 

Nor, as will be seen, did Germany till long after the 
entente had become a fait accompli regard it as having 
any character of hostility to herself. 

By the time the King's visit to Paris was announced 
in the spring of 1903, the support given to the move- 
ment was overwhelming. 1 Apart from the resolution 
of the Nottingham meeting of the Association of 
Chambers of Commerce in 1901, twenty-seven British 
chambers had discussed and passed special resolutions 
on the subject. In France the number of chambers 
which had discussed and passed special resolutions 
reached the enormous number of forty-one, practically 

1 See pp. 346 et seq. 
214 



FIGHTING FOR PEACE 

the whole of commercial and industrial France. The 
number of trade unions of Great Britain and Ireland 
which had passed emphatic special resolutions was 
thirty-five, representing 2,000,000 of British workers. 
On the French side eighteen municipal councils had 
adopted resolutions as emphatic as those of the British 
trade unions. That peace societies should pass 
resolutions in favour of the proposal almost went 
without saying. Anyhow they reached the sub- 
stantial figure of nineteen. The Society of Friends, 
the representatives of the Jewish community in 
England, the Methodists had all passed resolutions 
supporting it. Special agitation committees had been 
formed in nine cities and others were in course of 
formation. The movement had the support of all the 
leading statesmen out of office of the two countries, 
of all the greatest British judges and lawyers and 
historians, of the leading men in the universities, 
etc., etc. 1 

In short, the movement had the support of every 
representative institution, body, and person who could 
be regarded as expressing the national opinion of 
Great Britain and France, and Lord Lansdowne could 
truly say, as he did in his despatch to Sir Edmund 
Monson of April 8, 1904, forwarding the agreements 
between Great Britain and France, that " such a 
settlement was notoriously desired on both sides of 
the Channel." 

The upper classes, however, were still unconvinced. 

One day in London, while I was in the thick of daily 
meetings, I met a past member of the British Embassy, 
and in our few minutes' conversation referred to its 
curious indifference to the movement. He told me 

1 See Appendix VII. 
215 



THIRTY YEARS 

I was putting the blame on the wrong back, adding 
" it is here they are against you." We were talking 
in the midst of that unique quarter of the British 
Empire where mind, money, and well-made clothes 
read the evening papers together at tea-time, " Club- 
land." My friend seemed to think this fatal, and 
when, in a fine vein of sarcasm, I said I should have 
abandoned hope had it been otherwise, he dubbed 
me an incorrigible optimist. 

" Don't dream," he added, speaking of the Foreign 
Office, " that public opinion daunts officials ; they 
can do no wrong." 

" What does then ? " 

" It is difficult to say. Questions in the House of 
Commons they hate. Letters to The Times worry 
them. But not even an earthquake that laid Downing 
Street in ruins would make them tremble." 

" Are you against me too ? " 

" No, I am with you ; but what of that ? Club- 
land is the class of the Executive." 

" Clubland is a brake, and the man in charge can 
turn it off and on as he chooses." 

" Do you think you have convinced him ? " 

" I don't think he requires to be convinced." 



216 



CHAPTER XIX 

THE ENTENTE IN SIGHT 

In my speech at the spring meeting of the Associated 
Chambers of Commerce in 1900 giving the invita- 
tion to meet in Paris in the autumn, I laid particular 
stress on the popularity of the Prince of Wales, who 
was president of the British section at the forthcoming 
Exhibition. 

On the same occasion I called, at the suggestion of 
very important French friends, on Lord Knollys with 
a view to sounding the Prince as to how an invitation 
to visit the Exhibition would be viewed. I was 
authorised on behalf of my friends to give His Royal 
Highness an emphatic assurance that he would receive 
a most hearty and respectful welcome, and that, owing 
to his popularity in Paris, his visit would certainly give 
an impetus to the restoration of Anglo-French friend- 
ship. That my friends and I were right was shown 
afterwards by the extraordinary keenness of the 
welcome given to the Chambers of Commerce. 

When I called back, Lord Knollys informed me 
that His Royal Highness thought he must follow the 
counsel of the Crown's accredited advisers, and that 
these advisers took quite a different view from mine 
and that of my French friends as to the state of feeling 
in France. I might take it that an invitation would 
have to be declined. 

When, therefore, early in the spring of 1903 the 

217 



THIRTY YEARS 

rumour appeared in the French papers that the King 
intended shortly to pay a visit to Paris, I concluded that 
the Crown's accredited advisers had changed their 
minds or that the King had taken the decision into 
his own hands, which I understand, as a fact, was 
the case. 

The same morning I telephoned M. Combarieu, the 
President's private secretary, to ascertain whether the 
statement in the Press entre-filet was correct. He 
replied that it was, and added that I should come 
round and see the President about it. 

I must confess that I had misgivings about the 
expediency of a visit to Paris. To visit the Exhibi- 
tion as Prince of Wales, president of the British 
Section, was a very different proposition from 
visiting Paris as King of England. Paris, unlike 
the provinces, was still in the throes of a violent 
antagonism between the reactionary and the progres- 
sive forces of that lively city. Under the Republic, 
in fact, it has ceased to lead public opinion as it used 
to do, and its supremacy in this respect has not only 
been challenged, but displaced by the great provincial 
centres like Lille, Lyons, Havre, Rouen, Dijon, Mar- 
seilles, Bordeaux, Nancy, etc., which have successfully 
vindicated their political and intellectual indepen- 
dence. The entente had been ardently and success- 
fully championed throughout provincial France. In 
Paris, on the other hand, the fierce political anti- 
Semitic passions, which had developed into an over- 
sensitive patriotism, had not yet calmed down. Even 
the Chamber of Commerce of the capital had not 
yet dared to submit a resolution in favour of the 
movement, though it had welcomed the British 
Chambers of Commerce in 1900 and M. Fumouze, 

218 



THE ENTENTE IN SIGHT 

its vice-president, was one of its most active 
partizans. 

# # # # # 

The President's private study was at the end of a 
series of rooms devoted to the secretarial staff. There 
was an unmistakable air of satisfaction, and I was 
greeted as if the couronnement of our work had been 
attained. The President said he was glad to have a 
few words with me. I suggested that the visit ought 
to be delayed till the following year, that is a year 
later, but the President observed that this was 
impossible. A personal friend of the King had 
arranged the visit, and His Majesty himself wished it 
to take place. 

" I know the danger," he said, " but I shall send 
for the leaders personally and point out to them that 
the King of England is not a Sovereign to whose 
charge the iniquities of any particular Government 
can be laid, that the King has always been a friend of 
France, and that, above all, France has a duty of 
hospitality to perform as well as an interest to pro- 
mote, the interest of peace between two peoples, who 
in spite of occasional egarements on both sides, 
represent all that is great and noble in the history of 
mankind. I shall recommend the enthusiasts to be 
moderate in their cheers and the disaffected to hold 
their tongues. Et vous ? " 

The question rather startled me. 

" M. le President," I said, " I shall go to Scotland 
and to the North of England and excite such a spirit 
of Francophil public opinion there that Paris would 
feel ashamed not to respond to it. The French will 
see that the movement is not a mere class movement 

219 



THIRTY YEARS 

in England, nor a mere Royal fad, but a movement of 
the masses of the King's subjects." 

Both plans were carried out. The King was 
received without exaggerated warmth, without any 
cries which could provoke a counter-manifestation. 

The London correspondent of the Temps, M. Ch. 
Schindler, who had just published his little book 
on Ireland, and given me a copy dedicated to 
" l'ouvrier le plus actif de V Entente Cordiale " accom- 
panied me to Scotland, where the meetings, as I 
anticipated, were enthusiastic. At Glasgow on the 
20th, Edinburgh on the 22nd, Dundee on the 24th, 
and Galashiels on the 27th of April, under the patron- 
age of the chambers of commerce and assisted by all 
the leading citizens of these four great centres, local 
committees were formed for the promotion of the 
Anglo-French entente. Before May 1, when the King 
crossed to Paris, nobody could say that the visit was 
a mere official parade or that the British public was 
indifferent. The objectors had been silenced by 
unchallengeable evidence. 

As it was the chambers of commerce which had 
taken the lead, it was to the British Chamber of Com- 
merce in Paris that the King delivered his message 
in the name of his people. 



Anglo-French incidents now precipitated themselves 
with an amazing velocity. As Lord Lansdowne in 
his famous despatch to Sir Edmund Monson of April, 
1904, truly said, " the King's visit gave a great 
impetus to the movement." 

I continued the series of my addresses in the North 

220 



THE ENTENTE IN SIGHT 

of England, at Leeds, Sheffield, and more especially 
Manchester (May 6), where from the first the move- 
ment had met with its most effective encouragement. 
The speech I was privileged to deliver on that 
occasion became a sort of manifesto. In the evening, 
on my return to London, I saw long quotations from 
it on the blackboard at the Reform Club and soon 
found I had struck home. The following day Mr. 
Ernest Beckett (now Lord Grimthorpe) sent me the 
form of a question he proposed to put to the Prime 
Minister on the subject. 

Mr. Ernest Beckett from the first had been one of 
the keenest supporters of the movement. He and 
another keen supporter of it, Sir William Holland 
(now Lord Rotherham), had called a meeting of 
M.P.'s in a committee-room at the House of Com- 
mons in the previous December (December 3, 1902) 
to hear an address on the subject which they asked me 
to deliver, and at it Ernest Beckett had presided. 

In his question Mr. Beckett asked the First Lord 
of the Treasury whether his attention had been called 
to resolutions passed by chambers of commerce on 
both sides of the Channel in favour of the conclusion 
of a permanent Treaty of Conciliation between Great 
Britain and France ; and, if so, whether, in view of 
the friendly feeling now prevailing between the two 
countries, His Majesty's Government would consider 
the expediency of entering into the necessary pre- 
liminaries to the negotiation of such a treaty. 

Mr. Balfour replied : — " As the House is aware, the Govern- 
ment have always been anxious that international disputes 
should, if possible, be decided and appeased by arbitral 
tribunals. My hon. friend uses the word ' conciliation,' 
which, I think, is not the word used by the chambers of 
commerce to which he refers. If we can do anything to 

221 



THIRTY YEARS 

further that general policy in connection with France, we 
should, of course, be glad to do so." 

Mr. Beckett said that in all recent resolutions of 
chambers of commerce the word " conciliation " had 
been used. 

In Mr. Beckett's original draft he had used the word 
" arbitration," and it was at my suggestion that he 
had substituted the term " conciliation." The Treaty 
it was proposed should be taken as the model was, as 
the reader knows, the Anglo-*A.merican Treaty, which 
was rather a Treaty of conciliation than of arbitration, 
as I had set out in an explanatory note among the 
papers I was circulating on the subject. 1 

Meanwhile (July 6 — 9) President Loubet paid his 
return visit to London, and if any doubt had still 
subsisted in the French mind as to the popularity of 
the rapprochement in England it was now finally 
dispelled. 

I attended M. Loubet's reception at St. James's 
Palace with Lord Reay, the chairman, Sir Donald 
Mackenzie Wallace, and Mr. A. A. Gordon, hon. 
secretary, on behalf of the Franco-Scottish Society 
to pay our respects. M. Loubet, with that bonhomie 
which made him so beloved, took my hand in his two 
and gave it a most affectionate squeeze. How well 
Frenchmen know how to put a volume into a geste ! 

•tF 'tr ?R* *Jr rjp 

I cannot refrain here from saying a little more about 
a man to whose independent and sagacious judgment 
and true devotion to the cause of peace, as the key- 

1 This note may not be without interest to those who think, as I do, that 
there is no reason why a Treaty modelled on the new Anglo-American and 
Franco-American Treaties should not for the same reason be concluded 
between the two partners of America in the Treaties in question. 

222 



THE ENTENTE IN SIGHT 

stone of a nation's prosperity and liberty, the entente 
owes more than the public has ever yet placed to his 
credit. 

M. Loubet owed his immense success with the 
French people and influence over his ministers to 
never having courted office — nay far from it — having 
always had to be pressed into acceptance of it. 

In retirement he has not followed the example of 
the well-to-do of Paris, who, when not bound profes- 
sionally to dwell in the neighbourhood of their sphere 
of operations, move westwards towards the Arc de 
Triomphe or beyond it to Passy, the Kensington of 
the French capital. The French advocate, like his 
confreres of Edinburgh, receives his clients and does 
his professional work at his private abode, and no 
practising advocate, in these circumstances, can reside 
at any great distance from the Palais de Justice. M. 
Loubet has remained within easy walking distance of 
the Salle des Pas Perdus, where he was wont in toque 
and gown to meet the many colleagues who had to 
combine the practice of their profession with parlia- 
mentary duties. In a spacious " apartment " in the 
Rue Dante, amid the teeming life of one of the busiest 
quarters of Paris, on the one hand, and nearly every- 
thing else that counts in Paris, except fashion, on the 
other, the ex-President, sprung from the people and 
a man of the people, is passing his declining years, 
for he is now seventy-five, when not enjoying 
the tranquillity and solitude of the maternal home at 
Montelimar. But he loves the noisy, bustling life of 
working Paris, of which from his balcony he can watch 
all the day's vicissitudes, from the early peasant carts, 
rumbling in the small hours with their lofty loads of 
vegetables for the market, till night, when the laughter 

223 



THIRTY YEARS 

of belated students rings joyously through the deserted 
streets and all is still again for a few hours. 

I once asked Mme. Loubet if really the President 
disliked being President, as he was reputed to do. 
She answered laughingly : " Oui et non ! " He had 
always longed to live in the country, and if he was in 
office it was not because he was ambitious or wanted 
it, but being there, il faut dire qu'il n'y est pas mal- 
beureux. He told me himself, when he was still 
President, that if he had any ambition it was to plead 
another case at the Palais after he had ceased to be 
President, just to show that an ex-President returns 
to the ranks of those who elected him. He disliked 
the idea that he should be either a sort of aristocrat 
or an unemployable after he had held the highest 
post in the national Magistrature. 

A couple of years ago I had occasion to call on M. 
Loubet, whom I had not seen since expiry of his 
Presidency. He had cataract in one eye and had 
practically lost the use of it, but he added with his old 
buoyant gaiety that the other had gained power, and 
with his one eye he was still a better shot than any 
comrade of his own age. 

As his left eye is gone, he had had a gun constructed 
which, while fitting into his right shoulder, curves 
round and brings trigger and sight to his good eye, 
and his friends are always surprised to see the 
pheasants go down in spite of his odd gun, his one 
eye, and his ripe age. 

From first to last, he told me, he had got everything 
other men wanted because he did not want it. His 
original dream had been to make a little money as an 
advocate at Montelimar and farm his own little property 
there. He had no vocation for politics, but half a 

224 



THE ENTENTE IN SIGHT 

century ago in the sixties, when the second Empire 
was at the height of its prosperity and he still a very 
young man, though full of democratic enthusiasm, he 
had a fit of indignation at the manoeuvres of a Govern- 
ment parliamentary candidate and threw himself into 
the fight on the Republican side. He thus became 
entangled with politics, and one fine day in 1876, to 
keep out an undesirable candidate, he found himself 
selected as the local favourite and was elected. This 
brought him to the capital, where he joined the Paris 
Bar and had a few cases, always waiting, however, for 
a propitious moment to retire from the Chamber and 
return to Montelimar. He was constantly trying to 
wriggle out of the political network, but the longer he 
remained in the Chamber the harder it became to 
leave it. By way of compromise he determined to 
stand as a candidate for the Senate, and in 1885 was 
elected by the same district to the Senate, hoping 
always to slip back to private life before long. 

But he had not been a couple of years in the Senate 
when he found himself obliged to accept office in the 
cabinet, and then, worse, in 1892 found himself forced 
into the presidency of the cabinet. An unrelenting 
fate continued to persecute him, and the wretched 
man in 1896 was elected president of the Senate 
instead of leaving it. Again he was thwarted. 

" It was a sad day," he said, " for my wife and me. 
We accepted fate, but it was with la mort dans Vame" 

While he was still president of the Senate, President 
Felix-Faure suddenly died, and then the full measure 
of misfortune overtook them ; he was elected to the 
Elysee ! He had done his duty there, and so had his 
wife, but they were glad it was over. Alas, they were 
now too old to make up for a misspent life of honours 

T.Y. 225 Q 



THIRTY YEARS 

and responsibility. Their ambition had been to 
spend their middle age among their cattle and their 
poultry, watching their crops ripen and their vineyards 
thrive, and seeing the years in and out amid the glories 
of the serene nature of the Dauphine ! 

M. Loubet's tribulations, however, have never 
affected his good humour. I never knew a man 
of more even temper or more kindly disposition, 
and his success in London was phenomenal. King 
Edward had a particular affection for him. His 
Majesty had known him during his presidency of the 
Senate, and a short time after he was elected to that 
of the Republic, M. Loubet told me, the Prince of 
Wales, as he then was, one day surprised him by 
calling when passing through Paris incognito to 
congratulate him. 

" Je suis content de vous voir la," said the Prince. 

" Moi pas ! " answered the President. 

A few days after Mr. Beckett's question in Parlia- 
ment I received the following letter from the hon. 
secretary of the Commercial Committee of the House 
of Commons : — 

"March 21, 1903. 

" Dear Sir, — I should deem it a great kindness if you would 
inform me, on behalf of my committee for whom I write, as 
to the position and status in Parliament of the Baron 
d'Estournelles de Constant, as it has been suggested that he 
and members of his group in Parliament should visit our 
Commercial Committee and address them on his subject from 
a commercial point of view. You will appreciate that as a 
non-partisan body of 160 members we naturally wish to 
know exactly this gentleman's standing before we formally 
send him an invitation. 

" The committee have requested me to write you, and I will 
lay before them your kind information on Tuesday next. 

226 



THE ENTENTE IN SIGHT 

" Thanking you in anticipation, Yours very faithfully, 
L. Sinclair, Hon. Secretary of the Commercial Committee of 
the House of Commons." 

In reply I gave the committee information which 
led to a further letter thanking me " for the ample 
and full information " I had given in regard to the 
Baron. A further inquiry came on behalf of Sir 
William Holdsworth and Sir William Holland asking 
" whether I would advise the Commercial Committee 
to invite him to give them an address." My advice 
was strongly in favour of the invitation being sent. 
The invitation was then sent in the following form : — ■ 

"House of Commons, June 13th, 1903. 

" Dear Baron d'Estournelles de Constant, — The very 
interesting announcement which has been made that a large 
number of members of the French Parliament have constituted 
themselves into a group under your presidency for the purpose 
of making serious efforts to promote peace, whether by arbitra- 
tion or by conciliation, has been received with sincere pleasure 
in political and commercial circles in this country. An earnest 
desire exists in Great Britain to cultivate the most friendly 
relations with our nearest neighbour, the Republic of France, 
and foster and consolidate by all means in our power the 
commercial and other ties which connect the two countries, 
and we welcome this opportunity of inviting members of 
another Parliament to meet us for interchange of thought on 
matters of deep interest for our mutual benefit. 

" Beyond the brief reports which have reached us we are 
unaware of the exact nature and character of your newly- 
formed organisation, and it has occurred to us that if you, as 
its president, accompanied by such of your colleagues as may 
be able to come, would do us the great honour and service of 
attending a gathering of members of the British Parliament, a 
useful purpose would be served by such a meeting, and the 
information that you would impart to us could not only be of 
commercial advantage to both countries, but might help to 
serve the noble cause you have in view. We are taking the 
initiative in this matter on behalf of the Commercial Com- 
mittee in the House of Commons, which is entirely of a non- 
partisan character, and comprises 159 of its members (whose 

227 Q 2 



THIRTY YEARS 

names we append), but we are assured that this invitation 
is most sincerely concurred in by other sections in our 
Parliament. 

" We therefore cordially invite you to honour us with a 
visit, and if Wednesday, July 15 th, would be a convenient 
day for you we should be delighted to receive you on that 
date. We are, Yours very truly, L. Sinclair, J. S. Randles, 
Honorary Secretaries." 

M. d'Estournelles de Constant, who was not aware 
of what had passed between the committee and me, 
at once communicated with me on the subject, and 
asked me to deliver an address on the following Satur- 
day at a meeting of the " arbitration group," which 
he had called for communication to them of the 
invitation. He thought it desirable that I should 
give them some account of the movement, especially 
as regards the support it had obtained in Great 
Britain, of the standing of the inviting Committee, 
and that I should back up the invitation by urging its 
acceptance. This was all done and on the 25th I 
received the following letter from the hon. secretary 
of the committee : — 

" June 25, 1903. 

" You will be the only visitor at the dinner on July 23rd. 
Of course, you will appreciate that, as the speech and toast 
list will be very small (the Baron's address being the one thing), 
you are not being asked to address the meeting. 

" I must repeat that the committee are looking forward to 
your being present, and I hope you will take it as a deserved 
compliment to yourself that they ask you alone, except peers 
and members of the House, to join them on the 23rd July." 

It was at this memorable dinner at the House of 
Commons that Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman, who 
presided, delivered an admirable speech in perfect 
French to the astonishment of all present. It was 
at it also that, introducing Mr. Balfour and Mr. 
Joseph Chamberlain to the guests, he wittily referred 

228 



THE ENTENTE IN SIGHT 

to the one as the enfant gate of the House and the other 
as its enfant terrible. At Sir E. Sassoon's dinner to a 
party of the French parliamentarians, Sir Henry- 
handed me to read a letter in perfect French from 
Lord Burghclere, congratulating him on his speech. 
There are hundreds of well-known Englishmen who 
speak French fluently, but I never heard any of my 
countrymen, except perhaps Lord Reay, show such a 
mastery over the finesses of the language as Sir 
H. Campbell-Bannerman. 

# * * # #. 

At length in October of the same year the Treaty 
of Arbitration between Great Britain and France was 
signed and the first step in a new period in the 
history of Anglo-French relations was taken. 

In the beginning of the month I knew the treaty was 
coming, and left London as a member of the Mosely 
Educational Commission to spend the autumn in the 
United States. The news of its signature had preceded 
me to New York, and it was on the landing stage from 
reporters who were waiting to interview me on the 
subject on my arrival that I learnt the expected and 
none the less happy tidings. 



229 



CHAPTER XX 



THE ACHIEVEMENT 



A week after Mr. Beckett's question in the House 
of Commons began the negotiations for the Anglo- 
French standing Treaty of Arbitration which was the 
official beginning of the end of Anglo-French hostile 
rivalry. 

Meanwhile, concurrent negotiations were com- 
menced for the purpose of settling all outstanding 
points of difference. The demand for an Arbitration 
Treaty presupposed a settlement of existing 
difficulties, and there were many and very delicate 
difficulties to be solved. Arbitration necessarily 
involves judicial methods, and a solution in accord- 
ance with contractual obligations, if any, or, if none, 
with principles of justice acknowledged and accepted 
by both parties. The continuance of the British 
occupation of Egypt was dictated by an overwhelming 
British interest. There are no principles of justice 
under which our overwhelming interest could be taken 
into consideration as against our contractual obliga- 
tions resulting from Treaties 1 and deliberate pro- 
mises of evacuation publicly given and repeated by 
British statesmen. Nor in the case of Morocco had 
either party any locus standi to submit their respec- 
tive claims in an independent State to arbitration. 
Nor, again, are there any principles of justice by which 

1 Treaties of 1856 and 1878. See my book on " The Turco-Italian War 
and its Problems," Chap. VII., for a full discussion of Egypt's political status. 

230 



THE ACHIEVEMENT 

arbitrators could decide as between the commercial 
interests of the one and the geographical position 
of the other. The New Hebrides question involved 
on the British side the reserving of the Australian 
claim to a prior right over the islands of Australasia, — 
an Australian Monroe doctrine, which is as reasonable 
as that of the United States and as little accountable 
to any existing principles. In the Newfoundland 
fisheries matter, only a subsidiary question of 
interpretation of a clause in the existing Treaty 
was susceptible of submission to arbitration. The 
main question involved the very existence of the 
French rights, rights which were derived from a 
Treaty which could only be reversed by the conclusion 
of a cancelling Treaty. 

There were other questions relating to Siam, Tunis, 
Madagascar, and the Niger. All were questions based 
rather on policy than on assessable or definable rights, 
and, however desirable it is that arbitration should 
extend to all international difficulties without dis- 
tinction, no principles have yet been devised by which 
such difficulties can be submitted by both contending 
parties to an impartial referee. For this reason I had 
proposed the adoption of the principles of the Anglo- 
American Treaty of " conciliation " of 1896, which 
would have enabled the parties to submit differences 
of the kind in question to a joint commission without 
an alien umpire. The alternative was to deal with 
all the then existing differences by negotiation and 
agreements, and provide arbitration for differences of 
interpretation of the agreements and any further 
matters of a judicial character, i.e., such matters as, 
when arising between citizens of the same country, 
would be within the scope of a national court of law. 

231 



THIRTY YEARS 

The latter alternative was the course adopted by the 
two Governments, and accordingly on May 20, 1903, 
M. Paul Cambon, the French Ambassador, wrote to 
M. Delcasse as follows : — 

" Guiding myself by the information your Excellency was 
good enough to give me verbally, I have asked Lord Lansdowne 
to tell me how he feels towards the campaign for arbitration 
among the British Chambers of Commerce. The opportunity 
of an interview of this sort was offered by a question put on 
this subject to Mr. Balfour on the nth inst., and his answer, 
though he confined himself to generalities which made it 
difficult to infer any adhesion to the scheme of a permanent 
Treaty of Arbitration, did not discourage the hopes of the 
supporters of the scheme. 

" Lord Lansdowne stated that a Government could not be 
asked absolutely to tie its hands, and that, according to their 
nature or importance, some questions must be kept outside 
the scope of arbitration ; that, on the other hand, the move- 
ment in favour of a permanent Treaty was so general that the 
Government could not do otherwise than earnestly take it 
into consideration. 

" I told him your Excellency shared this view and had 
already drawn up a formula, and repeated the words you had 
yourself used at our last conversation. 

" ' We could submit,' you said, ' to arbitration divergencies 
referring to the juridical interpretation of conventions existing 
between the two countries.' 

" Lord Lansdowne seemed impressed by this formula, 
which he thought might serve as a satisfactory basis for an 
understanding." 

While the details of a general settlement were being 
discussed, from time to time the negotiations for the 
Arbitration Treaty were resumed. Thus two months 
later (July 16, 1903) M. Delcasse wrote to M. Paul 
Cambon : — 

" By a letter dated 20th May last, you reported an interview 
which you had had with the Principal Secretary of State on 
the subject of a permanent Treaty of Arbitration between 
France and Great Britain. 

" Since then, this question has constantly been agitated 

232 



THE ACHIEVEMENT 

on both sides of the Channel. Numerous addresses have 
reached me in which an understanding of this sort is urged 
either by chambers of commerce or by individuals. 

"This movement of opinion being no less marked in 
England than in France, I should attach some value to knowing 
what the King's Minister for Foreign Affairs precisely thinks. 
I should, therefore, be obliged to you if you would take the 
first opportunity of conferring again on the subject with 
Lord Lansdowne. 

" I think it useful to communicate to you the enclosed 
copy of a form which has already been approved by the 
cabinet and which seems capable of serving as a basis for the 
negotiations which might be entered into with the King's 
Government." 

The enclosure was as follows : — 

" Differences falling within the scope of article 16 of the 
Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International 
Conflicts, signed at the Hague on the 29th July, 1899, that is 
to say, differences of a juridical order, and particularly those 
relative to difficulties of interpretation or application of 
existing Conventions, which may arise between the High 
Contracting Powers, shall — provided, however, that they 
affect neither the vital interests nor the honour of the said 
Contracting Powers, and that, on the other hand, they cannot 
be solved through the diplomatic channel — be submitted to 
the permanent Court of Arbitration, in conformity with the 
provisions of the above-mentioned Convention." 

A few weeks again passed, and then M. Cambon 
wrote on August 6 to M. Delcasse : — 

" Carrying out your instructions, I yesterday told the 
Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs that you 
were quite ready to discuss with him a draft Convention of 
Arbitration between the two countries. I handed him the 
formula which you had requested me to communicate to 
him officially and which appeared to him worthy of careful 
consideration. He will submit it to his colleagues, and his 
personal opinion is that in restricting, as you do, arbitration 
to differences of a juridical order and to difficulties of interpre- 
tation of existing conventions, it is possible to reach some 
practical understanding." 

Some six weeks passed ; then M. Delcasse wrote to 

233 



THIRTY YEARS 

M. Geoffray, the French Charge d' Affaires (now the 
distinguished Ambassador of France at Madrid), to 
take up the matter again, and at length on October 7 
M. Cambon asked for instructions to sign the draft 
submitted by M. Delcasse and approved by Lord 
Lansdowne. On the 14th the signatures were affixed 
and the first standing Treaty of Arbitration stepped 
into history, accompanied by an official note stating 
that it was the " outcome of the movement in both 
countries in favour of affirming the general principle 
of recourse to arbitration, whenever that method can 
be safely and conveniently adopted." 

#tit» jt. ji. jj. 

"9P TT" -JF ^F 

As was pointed out at the time, the Anglo-French 
Arbitration Treaty is one of the three greatest 
events in the history of arbitration. The first was 
the Alabama case, in which two great countries sub- 
mitted a question which had aroused the war spirit 
in both of them to a white heat, to the decision of a 
court composed mainly of foreigners, and in which for 
the first time the methods of domestic judicature were 
applied to arbitration. The second was the creation 
of the Hague Court, and the third was the Anglo- 
French Treaty agreeing to submit all difficulties of a 
judicial character to it. These three events stand in 
the direct line of descent one from the other as the 
three landmarks in the road of progress towards the 
goal of justice among nations. Elsewhere I have 
discussed the character of the Treaty, its scope, and 
the measure of its utility. 1 



1 " Problems of International Practice and Diplomacy " : London, 1907, 
pp. ijetseq. ; North American Review, January, 1904 ; Fortnightly Review , 
October, 1904. 

234 



THE ACHIEVEMENT 

On the signing of the Treaty I wrote from New 
York congratulating Lord Lansdowne and M. 
Cambon, the French Ambassador, its two signatories. 
Lord Lansdowne's reply, dated October 28, was as 
follows : — 

" Foreign Office, October 28, 1903. 

" Dear Mr. Barclay, — I am much obliged to you for your 
letter of October 16 and for sending me the cutting from the 
New York Times which gives your views on the importance 
of the Anglo-French Arbitration Treaty. 

" I am sure that it must be a great satisfaction to you to 
see your efforts in this direction crowned with success. 

" With many thanks, etc., Lansdowne." 

That from M. Cambon was more circumstantial, 
and in stating that it was " calculated to cut short a 
quantity of daily difficulties and incidents of which 
one can never foresee the consequences " he admirably 
described at once its scope and its advantages. It 
ran : — 

" Ambassade de France a Londres, 

le 27 Octobre, 191 3. 

" Cher Monsieur Barclay, — Je recois votre aimable lettre. 

" Sans etre un aussi grand evenement que vous voulez bien 
le dire, la signature de ce traite d'arbitrage est un acte d'une 
certaine gravite. La convention a un caractere pratique, 
utilisable des maintenant. Elle est de nature a couper court 
a une quantite de difficultes journalieres et a ces incidents 
dont on ne peut jamais calculer les suites. Elle est en outre 
une manifestation des bons rapports entre les deux pays. 
Et a ce titre seulement elle a ses avantages. 

" Vous etes l'un des ouvriers de la premiere heure dans cette 
ceuvre de rapprochement et c'est a vous surtout qu'il faut 
adresser ses felicitations. — Votre bien devoue, Paul Cambon." 

From Lord Chief Justice Alverstone, who, as I have 
said, had given me throughout my campaign both his 
always mature and judicious advice and his influential 

235 



THIRTY YEARS 

backing, I received the following private letter which 
I have his kind authority to publish : — 

" Hornton Lodge, Kensington, October 27, 1903. 

" Dear Barclay, — Your letter of the 16th inst. from New 
York has just reached me. As you do not state how long 
you are remaining there, I think it best to reply to Paris. 

" You have my most hearty congratulationson the successful 
result of your labours. No one knows better than I that the 
signing of the Anglo-French Treaty is entirely due to you. 
Faithfully yours, Alverstone." 



236 



CHAPTER XXI 

AN ANGLO-AMERICAN INTERLUDE 

It will have been observed that the letters quoted 
in the last chapter implied my absence in America. 

By the time I was invited by my old and esteemed 
friend Lord Reay to join the Mosely Educational Com- 
mission, the Anglo-French entente was well on its way 
to realisation, and, though I continued the work of 
agitating for it by addresses in France down to the 
end of September and great meetings were held at 
Bordeaux, Nancy, and Lyons in August and Septem- 
ber, it was because there had as yet been no official 
report of progress, and, so far as the public were aware, 
the two Governments seemed still to require mani- 
festations of public opinion to goad them into action. 
The Lyons meeting (September 28), at which the then 
famous mayor, M. Augagneur, the most progressive 
civic officer in France and afterwards successively 
governor of Madagascar and Minister of Public Works, 
presided, and another at which my ever obliging, 
energetic and dear friend, Senator Mascuraud, presi- 
dent of the "Comite Republicain du Commerce et de 
l'Industrie," occupied the chair, were the last of my 
campaign. The negotiations for the Treaty of Arbi- 
tration were concluded a week later. So I " sheathed 
my sword " and embarked with the Mosely Com- 
mission for New York. 

# * * # # 

I had inherited from my active old grandfather his 

237 



THIRTY YEARS 

love of educational questions. In the twenties, when 
Walter Scott, the poet, was not yet known to be the 
" author of * Waverley ' " and the Edinburgh Review 
was preaching the gospel of progress and reform, he 
founded, as the town clerk and the " autocrat " of 
Kinghorn, the first Realschule, a school in which a 
little Latin and much French and science were taught. 
He had the school-house built according to the points 
of the compass, with constellations decorating the 
roof. Around it were busts of famous men, including 
Napoleon and Walter Scott, which made a party of 
visitors from Edinburgh sigh at the degeneracy of 
admiring the late " scourge of Europe," on the one 
hand, and that " stickit lawyer, wasting his time wi* 
verses," on the other. 

My visit to the United States and Canada, originally 
undertaken for the study of the educational methods 
and resources of the great Republic, developed, after 
the return home of the Commission a month later, 
into a three months' campaign for an Anglo-American 
Treaty of Arbitration on the lines of that which had 
been concluded between Great Britain and France. 
Just about that time (October 20, 191 3) the Alaska 
decision had been given, and Lord Alverstone, siding 
with the American members of the Tribunal, Messrs. 
Elihu Root, Lodge and Turner, against the Canadian 
members, Sir Louis Jette and Mr. Aylesworth, had 
decided against the British, that is, the Canadian view. 
Public feeling in the Dominion ran high. It was 
thought Lord Alverstone had yielded to political 
pressure exercised in London and that, out of fear of 
United States displeasure, the British Government 
had sacrificed a Canadian interest. At our Embassy 

238 



AN ANGLO-AMERICAN INTERLUDE 

at Washington Mr. Raikes, British Charge d' Affaires, 
allowed me to examine the printed papers, and I came 
to the conclusion that Lord Alverstone could not in 
justice have decided otherwise than he did. The 
Canadians had given away their contention before its 
defenders were born. As this was a matter in which 
the principle which I had been advocating for three 
years was involved, viz., that, in matters of grave 
national importance, the board of arbitration, or 
rather conciliation, should be composed exclusively 
of nationals, it was of the greatest importance to my 
argument to see how it had worked in the only case 
in which it had been applied. 

In endeavouring to gauge public opinion, as every- 
body knows, distant observers are often the victims of 
misleading casual incidents. It was so in this case. If 
it had been otherwise, I should not have been cheered 
as I was at the Board of Trade and Canadian Club at 
Ottawa, at the Board of Trade and Chambre de Com- 
merce of Montreal, and at the Canadian Club of Toronto. 
At lunch, at Sir Wilfrid Laurier's house in Ottawa, I 
met Sir Louis Jette, who breathed no violence. Mr. 
Aylesworth at Toronto showed some vexation, but 
no wrath. I came away with the conviction that 
Canadians had only exercised the right of every man 
who loses his case to say " damn " ; and, instead of 
being dissuaded by the object-lesson of the Alaska 
case from pressing for the adoption of this system, I 
have ever since advocated it as the wisest method of 

dealing with matters of great national gravity. 
# # # « # 

The delightfully instructive four months I spent 
in America do not fall within the scope of this 
volume. 

239 



THIRTY YEARS 

In Canada I stayed with an old Fife friend, Sir 
Sandford Fleming, one of whose charming daughters 
married Captain Exshaw, of Bordeaux, son of a late 
client of mine, who has given his name to a famous 
" brand." Sir Sandford had arranged my short 
campaign so admirably that in a few days I was able 
to do the work of weeks. 

At Washington I made the acquaintance, which 
ripened into friendship, of John Hay, the Secretary of 
State. We planned together my campaign for the 
revival of the Anglo-American Treaty negotiations, 
and in conjunction with Mr. Bassett Moore, the Hon. 
J. W. Foster, Dr. E. Hale, Mr. Andrew Carnegie, 
Mr. Trueblood, Mr. E. Ginn,. Mr. Brown, of Messrs. 
Brown Shipley & Co., and last, but far from least, 
Mr. G. L. Rives (the editor of the Correspondence of 
Thomas Barclay, a New York worthy, a circumstance 
which brought us together), revived the old Arbitra- 
tion Committee of 1895, with Mr. Nelson Page, 
the new United States minister to China, as hon. 
secretary. 

My fellow-townsman of Dunfermline, Mr. Carnegie, 
took a very active and effective part in its work, 
and a new Treaty in due course was signed. Again, 
unfortunately, the Senate " hamstrung " it. Mr. 
Hay one day observed to me that the Fathers of 
the Constitution had made a deplorable mistake in 
investing the Senate with executive powers, for it 
simply meant that the Secretary of State passed his 
life with discouragement in his soul and anger in 
his language. Mr. Hay was a man of intense sincerity 
and at the same time a truly great diplomatist in the 
highest sense of the term, well informed, judicious 
and courteous, at once a man of the world and a 

240 



AN ANGLO-AMERICAN INTERLUDE 

student of events, kindly yet firm, and knowing 
exactly what he wanted, though the Senate seldom 
allowed him to get it. 

When he was returning from Europe ill, practically 
on his death-bed already, I wrote to be allowed to 
come and see him. But he was too ill to receive me. 
The following autograph letter showed how the 
frustration of his efforts and hopes preyed on his 
mind : — 

" June 6, 1905. 

" My stay in London is counted by hours, and I am 
compelled by the condition of my health to deny myself the 
pleasure of visiting or receiving my friends. 

" I am very sorry not to have met you — though your visit 
could hardly have been anything but a renewal of sorrow. 
The action of our Senate, in bringing to nought the labour 
of years, — in which your own services were most brilliant 
and valuable — was a bitter grief to me." 



T Y. 24I 



CHAPTER XXII 

THE SQUARING UP 

The Arbitration Treaty had been signed on October 
14, 1903. It was not till six months later that the 
general settlement of pending difficulties, of which it 
was the complement, was finally concluded. 

During M. Loubet's visit to London M. Delcasse, 
who accompanied him, had an exhaustive personal 
interview (July 7) with Lord Lansdowne, at which it 
was recognised that it was not impossible, as M. Delcasse, 
after the conclusion of the conventions, wrote to his 
representatives in the countries involved, " to find 
for each of the problems with which they were con- 
fronted " a solution equally advantageous to both 
parties. 

The Arbitration Treaty, as was well known, was 
only a part of the programme of the work of arriving 
at an effective entente. It was later explained that the 
Arbitration Treaty was signed, before the general 
agreement on pending difficulties was concluded, with 
a view to giving provisionally some satisfaction to the 
growing impatience of public opinion to see some 
tangible outcome of the agitation. The delay was 
unavoidable, however, owing to the fact that the 
arrangements included details affecting the interests 
and territory of two of our self-governing colonies 
whose views had to be ascertained before anything 
definite could be signed. After these pending 

242 



THE SQUARING UP 

difficulties had been removed, the Arbitration Treaty, 
as M. Cambon said in his letter to me, 1 would be 
useful as a means of dealing with any detail which 
might arise in the future. 

By a give-and-take arrangement the two Govern- 
ments found it possible, under the benign influence of 
the new friendship between the two peoples, to settle 
matters which had caused anxiety to a generation of 
Foreign Secretaries. 



At length, in April, 1904, all outstanding diffi- 
culties were finally adjusted and the agreements 
published. 

It will be remembered what the difficulties which 
had been so long a source of embarrassment between 
the British and French Governments were : — (a) The 
position which had arisen out of the British occupa- 
tion of Egypt, a country in which French influence had 
been politically preponderant for a century, a pre- 
ponderance to which the construction and ownership 
of the Suez Canal had added a great material French 
interest ; (b) the case of Morocco, which France as a 
contiguous State regarded as a French sphere of 
influence, but in which Great Britain had very 
material interests as a market for British goods and 
enterprise, apart from the political complication of 
its proximity to Gibraltar ; (c) the question of the 
" French shore " in Newfoundland, a question of 
rights which the French had retained from the 
old time of French ascendancy in what is now 
British North America (these rights had become 
a source of trouble and conflict since the British 

1 See p. 236. 

243 R 2 



THIRTY YEARS 

colony of Newfoundland had become a self- 
governing dependency and the once desert shores 
in question had been reached by the expanding 
interests of the island colonists) ; (d) the question 
of the New Hebrides, islands which Australians 
claimed to be within their sphere of influence, while 
France claimed them to be within the sphere of 
influence of her New Caledonian possessions, and 
which meanwhile were a sort of no-man's-land in 
which British and French settlers were exposed to a 
dangerous state of anarchy ; (e) the question of Siam, 
which had remained a bone of contention between the 
British influence on the western side and the French 
on the eastern, and where the respective antagonistic 
interests involved constantly threatened to develop 
into unmanageable incidents. 

The arrangement of these difficulties involved con- 
cessions by Great Britain which also settled other 
difficulties. We had never agreed to the French 
change in the economic status of Madagascar. We 
now recognised the customs duties imposed by France 
in that island. We ceded, moreover, certain islands 
to France which fell within the geographical area of 
the French Guinea coast, and consented to boundary 
rectifications in Central and Western Africa, which, 
while giving satisfaction to France, wiped out a 
number of points of perennial irritation. 

The arrangement resembled a treaty of peace, a 
treaty such as the Powers concerned might have 
concluded after a costly but undecisive war, such 
as an Anglo-French war would probably have been. 
More especially, in disposing satisfactorily of the 
Egyptian question, it put an end to a difficulty 
which the French not only considered a " vital 

244 



THE SQUARING UP 

interest," but had come to regard as involving the 

" national honour." 

***** 

The question of the New Hebrides, which was after- 
wards regulated in detail by an Anglo-French joint 
commission, settled a matter which might easily 
have been fanned into a matter of "national honour," 
complicated by a British colonial view difficult to 
manage from London. 

I had long been connected with the question of 
Anglo-French rivalry in those parts, first as repre- 
sentative of the Bank of South Australia and 
the Glasgow interest in the New Caledonian 
Nickel Company against John Higginson, and after- 
wards, when the Glasgow people were bought out, 
as the adviser of John Higginson himself. 

John Higginson was one of the most interesting 
adventurers it has been my lot to know. Born in 
New South Wales, son of a small Irish Presbyterian 
squatter, he found life, between the austerity of his 
home and his inability to be anything but the school 
dunce, so intolerable that one day he slipped away to 
Sydney, hid himself aboard the first vessel sailing, 
and found himself landed at fourteen years of age at 
Noumea, in a country of which he did not know the 
language. But he was strong of limb and could join 
the coolies, and for a couple of years he kept body and 
soul together as a lighterman. Then his chance came. 
The French Government found it necessary to have a 
regiment of cavalry to act as police for the main- 
tenance of order among the unruly convict and native 
populations. The horses were bought in Australia, 
but they had to be broken in and men had to be taught 
to ride them. Higginson, who was an expert horse- 

245 



THIRTY YEARS 

man, offered himself for the job, and at ioof. a head 
he created the first cavalry regiment in New Caledonia. 
With the money earned he opened a store, and by the 
time he reached manhood his store had grown to be 
the largest in the island, and he had saved enough to 
buy certain lands without which Noumea could not 
expand. Then followed his famous concessions for 
nickel and iron mines. To avoid difficulties in con- 
nection with them he naturalised himself French and 
married a French girl of fourteen, by whom he had 
nineteen children, only one of whom was a boy. In 
this, he said, Providence had again been kind to 
him, seeing that he could choose his sons-in-law but 
not his sons ! To work the immense mineral resources 
of New Caledonia, Higginson, who had become the 
chief industrial potentate of the island, took into 
partnership with him Sir William Morgan, who after- 
wards became Premier of New South Wales, and 
through whom the New Caledonian nickel interest 
reached Glasgow. Though Higginson never learnt to 
speak French with perfect ease, his English was full 
of French expressions, and he could write in neither 
language correctly. But when he talked he was always 
interesting. One day he told me that for years he 
had been in pawn. One of the largest landowners in 
the world, with enough concessions in rich and valuable 
ores to keep the money market busy for a season, the 
man who at the time held the destinies not only of 
Noumea but of the New Hebrides in the palm of his 
hand, had to live on promissory notes to pay his 
hotel bill at the Mirabeau and borrow from its land- 
lord to pay for his journeys to London. Eventually 
he succeeded in disposing of his vast interests and 
was able to square up all the money transactions 

246 



THE SQUARING UP 

he had meanwhile contracted, but he was only a 
free man for a few months. His life of anxiety 
had affected his heart, and he died before he 
had had time to enjoy the comfort of a steady 

income. 

***** 

In the course of advising Higginson on many of his 
complicated dealings, I became familiar with the 
chaotic Anglo-French situation in the New Hebrides, 
with the difficulties which were constantly cropping up 
through the proximity to Australia of the New Cale- 
donian convict colony, through the Australian theory 
that New Caledonia and the New Hebrides were 
within the Australian geographical area, and the con- 
tention that, if there were grounds for a Monroe 
doctrine within the American area, there were still 
more in the case of Australia and the neighbouring 
islands. So strong was the feeling on this subject 
in New South Wales that preparations were made 
at the time of Anglo-French tension in 1898 and 
1900 to raid New Caledonia as soon as war was 
declared. The island had been carefully surveyed 
for landing purposes, and spies on the spot kept 
the New South Wales people informed of any 
movement, naval or military, on the island. The 
distance from Sydney to Noumea is some 1,500 miles. 
The ships were to slip round to certain fixed spots 
known only to the commanders of the expedition 
and to join each other on the island at a spot where 
they would establish their base before rushing the 
garrison. 

This was the state of things with which Lord 
Lansdowne had to grapple in his settlement of the 
New Hebrides question. As regards New Caledonia. 

247 



THIRTY YEARS 

the suppression of the convict settlement has now 
removed the chief Australian grievance. 

w W w w W 

There was an element of danger even in the Siamese 
difficulty which had brought us within an inch of a 
conflict with France, and which, far from being solved, 
had been intensified by our Burmese campaign and 
the consequent addition to our Burmese possessions. 

But the spirit between the two peoples had become 
a friendly one, and with popular feeling favourable 
to a settlement the task of the negotiators was 
uncomplicated by those extraneous considerations 
which place their vicissitudes at the mercy of patriotic 
susceptibilities. 

The new conventions did not escape criticism, either 
in this country or in France. 

In the House of Commons, in the following month, 
they were criticised adversely by Sir Charles Dilke, 
Mr. T. Gibson Bowles, Mr. (now Sir) Joseph Walton, 
and Mr. (now Lord) Robson. Sir H. Campbell- 
Bannerman and Sir Edward Grey, on the other hand, 
speaking with great Liberal authority, expressed 
themselves warmly favourable to them. Lord Rose- 
bery again in a speech at a meeting of the Liberal 
League at the Queen's Hall on June 10, while 
approving the object of the agreement between the 
two Powers, deprecated the result. According to 
him a more one-sided agreement had never been 
concluded between two Powers at peace with each 
other ! 

The agreements did not reach parliamentary dis- 
cussion in the French Chambers till the following 

248 



THE SQUARING UP 

November. The provisions relating to the " French 
shore " and the Newfoundland fisheries had been 
more or less severely criticised by different politicians 
on the publication of the conventions, and the same 
criticism was repeated by those who attacked M. 
Delcasse in Parliament. However, on November 3, 
after a three days' debate, the ensemble of the agree- 
ments was carried by 443 votes to 105 ! 

■a. Jfe jfe jfe jfe 

Among the provisions of the convention relating 
to Egypt and Morocco was an article in which the 
two Governments stated that " being equally attached 
to the principle of commercial liberty, both in Egypt 
and Morocco," they undertook " not in those countries 
to countenance any inequality either in the imposition 
of customs duties or other taxes, or of railway trans- 
port charges," and stipulated that this " mutual 
agreement " was to " be binding for a period of 
thirty years," and thereafter to be extended, if not 
denounced at least one year in advance, for further 
periods of " five years at a time." 

The full importance of this provision did not at 
once strike the critics of the Egypt-Morocco con- 
vention. That its effect was reciprocal for Egypt and 
Morocco seems to have been thought satisfactory by 
Governments and their critics on both sides. It gave 
both the Egypto-British and the French Governments 
power on the expiry of thirty years to impose duties 
so far as they were respectively concerned. It was 
obvious that, if France retained her protective policy 
and her existing practice of regarding her colonies as 
more or less exclusively reserved for the importation 
of French manufactures, French imports into Morocco 
after thirty years would probably be given the benefit 

249 



THIRTY YEARS 

of preferential treatment as against British goods, 
unless by raising a similar barrier in Egypt against 
French goods (provided we were still entitled to do 
so) we could force France to renew the equality-of- 
treatment clause. At a time when " retaliation " 
was regarded as an " open sesame " for British manu- 
factures into all protected markets, this consideration 
possibly seemed a sufficient guarantee against the 
closing of the Morocco market ! 

The limitation of the duration of the clause in ques- 
tion, however, was obviously not without danger for 
our Morocco trade. As regards other countries, though 
they were not bound by the agreements between the 
two contracting parties, they might nevertheless find 
themselves faced by a fait accompli thirty years hence, 
closing both the Egyptian and the Morocco markets 
to their trade. This was the one truly weak spot in 
the conventions, as will be seen in the next chapter. 

Immediately after the signature of the conventions 
of April 8, 1 had intimations from friends, Lord Brassey, 
Lord Alverstone, and M. d'Estournelles de Constant, 
that my services in connection with the entente were 
to be simultaneously acknowledged by the two 
Governments. In June the King conferred a knight- 
hood on me and the Republic the officership of the 
Legion of Honour. But higher still than these out- 
ward appreciations I value the private letters received 
from the friends who had worked with me in a cam- 
paign which it almost makes me giddy to think of, 
now that its object has been attained. But for the 
unfailing faith in the cause of my many powerful 
collaborators and a Press on both sides which never 
flinched in its support, public opinion could not have 

250 



THE SQUARING UP 

been moved as it was. In this connection I may recall 
the names already mentioned of Lord Alverstone, 1 Lord 
Brassey, Sir William Holland (now Lord Rotherham), 
Mr. Ernest Beckett (now Lord Grimthorpe), Sir John 
Brunner, Mr. C. P. Scott (editor of the Manchester 
Guardian), Lord Avebury, Mr. Hodgson Pratt, and 
Mr. W. L. Courtney (editor of the Fortnightly Review), 
whose active participation in the work has already 
been mentioned. On the French side, the late M. 
Frederic Passy, Professor Charles Richet (to whom 
the Nobel Prize for Medicine has just been awarded), 
M. d'Estournelles de Constant, M. Mascuraud (presi- 
dent of the Comite Republicain du Commerce et de 
V Industrie), and M. Decugis have all attached their 
names to the general work of drawing the two 
nations into bonds of union and peace. 

# # # # # 

From several hundreds of friends and fellow- 
workers I received letters of congratulation. If I 
select only one, it is not because I value the others 
less, but because it marks more particularly the 
feeling at the time towards a cause the character 
of which has since been most mischievously mis- 
represented. 

Mr. Ernest Beckett, who, as one of the leading 
spirits of the movement, could speak with authority, 
wrote me : — 

" I must send you a word of very hearty congratulation 
upon the more than well-deserved honour that has at last 
been bestowed upon you. 

" I am delighted that your most brilliant and useful services 
to humanity at large and your own country in particular 
have met with recognition, and I can honestly say that, in 

1 See his letter, p. 236. 

251 



THIRTY YEARS 

my opinion, for whatever it may be worth, no honour that has 
been conferred upon any individual for many years has been 
so entirely merited by work of such value as yours. The 
Government in honouring your successful efforts on behalf of 
peace and good-will between nations that should always be 
friends, in the teeth of difficulties and discouragements that 
would have long ago daunted and deterred most men, have 
honoured themselves more than you, and I am very glad that 
you have been distinguished in the eyes of all men." 



252 



CHAPTER XXIII 



A NEW ERA GERMANY 



That a new era had dawned on Europe was not at 
once realised by even the leaders of British public 
opinion. It was vaguely felt, however, by some that 
an entente with a foreign State, though entailing no 
precise or binding engagement, might, nevertheless, 
for its own preservation involve us in matters where 
our interest was not obvious. What had not occurred 
apparently to anybody was the possible lateral effects, 
those unforeseen consequences of which Disraeli 
subtly bid statesmen never to lose sight. The most 
unforeseen of incidents, in fact, soon occurred, and 
then we saw that our relation to our new friend's ally 
had undergone a change, which has since developed 
into a complete redistribution of the political forces 
of Europe. 



The Fashoda affair was essentially a diplomatic 
incident. Lord Salisbury had to excite public opinion 
on the subject artificially by the urgent publication 
of a White Paper to get the nation to appreciate its 
importance. The Dogger Bank incident at once 
excited public opinion to such an extent that the 
Government very nearly lost control. If war had 
been declared or the Russian fleet had been annihilated 
in the Channel without declaration of war, I firmly 

253 



THIRTY YEARS 

believe there would have been bonfires from one 
end of these islands to the other, as if we had 
destroyed another Armada. That no excess occurred 
was more than likely due to the Anglo-French 
entente. 

How the Russian fleet had wandered forty or sixty 
miles out of its course still remains a mystery. A 
Swedish naval officer whom I met on the occasion 
of the visit of the Scandinavian parliamentarians to 
Paris, and who had been at one time in the Russian 
service, attributed it simply to nautical ignorance 
and want of skill on the part of the Russian 
officers, all the well-trained men in the Russian service 
having already gone to the Far East. The explanation 
given at the time was that a warning had been given 
by Germany to the Russian Government that a 
number of Japanese torpedo-boats built at Newcastle 
were on the look-out to attack the fleet on its way 
through the North Sea. This, however, does not 
account for a deviation of forty to sixty miles 
from the fleet's direct course through the open 
sea, where suspicious craft would have been easily 
spotted. 

Admiral Rojdestvensky's own report that two 
torpedo-boats without lights had been seen advancing 
and had afterwards disappeared, and that a war- 
vessel reported to have remained in the vicinity till 
morning must have been one of them, was never 
substantiated. As Mr. Balfour in his speech at 
Southampton on October 28 stated, their own sailing 
directions must have warned them that, if they were 
exposed to a Japanese attack, the place above all to 
avoid was the Dogger Bank. The Admiral's con- 
tention that in the circumstances, even in time of 

254 



A NEW ERA— GERMANY 

peace, he could not have acted otherwise, the Prime 
Minister rightly described as " extraordinary," to 
say the least of it. A fleet acting on such a principle 
would be a fleet of pirates, which should be hunted 
down as enemies of mankind. 



Whatever the cause may have been, the newspapers 
were full of bellicose ardour, which became still more 
intense during the week which followed the ominous 
Friday, October 21. It seemed to me that the news- 
papers were unnecessarily violent, and that even the 
counter-proposal of the more pacific to arbitrate was 
beside the mark. If there had been any allegation 
of provocation or there had been a conflicting assertion 
of right there would have been a case for arbitration. 
But England could not have agreed to arbitration 
without admitting that Russia had some semblance 
of right on her side, which she had not. It was 
clearly a case for a judicial inquiry. I thought this 
ought to be made clear at once, and I telephoned to 
Mr. J. A. Spender, editor of the Westminster Gazette, 
on the subject. He saw my point and sent me 
an interviewer forthwith. The same afternoon 
(October 28) a short article appeared in its columns 
under the heading of " Some Pleas in Suspense of 
Judgment," the chief passage of which was as 
follows : — 

" Sir Thomas Barclay, whose labours in the cause of 
international arbitration are so well known, had several 
remarks pertinent to the crisis to make to a ' Westminster ' 
representative who saw him this morning. For one thing, 
he pointed out that this is not a case for arbitration. Arbitra- 
tion can only be resorted to when the facts of a dispute are 
known and the issue is absolutely clear. There is. however, 

255 



THIRTY YEARS 

obviously a case for inquiry and precisely such a situation is 
provided against in the Hague Convention, under which a 
Commission of Inquiry could be appointed by the Joint 
Powers. Why should not this solution of the trouble be 
resorted to, since before everything else it is exact knowledge 
of the facts which is needed at present." 

At the Cabinet Council the same afternoon it was 
decided to agree to such an inquiry as suggested in 
the above article. 

There was an outcry, an unjustifiable outcry, at the 
adoption of this solution, which was described as a 
miserable compromise and anti-climax. Anyhow, a 
Commission of Inquiry was appointed, and its report, 
published in the following February, was the first great 
triumph for the Hague Peace Convention. It was 
truly so, but it was a still greater triumph for the 
Anglo-French entente. 



The influence France exerted as mediator between 
her two friends marked the dawn of a new state of 
things which required the most delicate handling. 
It was obvious that our friendship with France was 
destined sooner or later, with its consolidation, to 
affect our policy in connection with France's ally. 

How was this going to affect Germany ? 

Wedged in between France and Russia, with 
England dominating all her issues to the outer 
world, her frontiers open to all the political winds 
that blow, Germany has a geographical position 
which forces her statesmen to listen with an anxious 
ear to any movements, projects, or combinations of 
her neighbours. In a country where military service 
is compulsory and the life of every able-bodied 

256 



A NEW ERA-GERMANY 

citizen is at stake on the slightest foreign provoca- 
tion, public opinion, moreover, is easily excited, and 
one of the cares of the Government is to anticipate 
possible alarm. This it had done. 

The semi-official Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung 
had lost no time in reassuring German public opinion 
on the effect of the Agreement of April 8, 1904. 
German commercial interests, it said on April 10, " in 
the North- West African Sultanate are in no peril of 
being interfered with. On the contrary, successful 
endeavours on the part of France ... to give 
greater stability to public affairs in Morocco would 
presumably benefit German as well as other com- 
merce." 

The Frankfurter Zeitung felt sure that France and 
England had satisfied themselves that " what they 
were arranging with each other was in no danger of 
encountering opposition or resistance on the part of 
Germany. 1 

So far from anything in the agreements or in the 
relations of France and England having any character 
of hostility to Germany, they were too obviously 
designed to put an end to strife and of too complicated 
character to involve any arriere-pensee warranting 
the remotest approach to any such idea. Nor did the 
German Chancellor (Count von Bulow) entertain any 
suspicion of their having any anti-German character. 

1 A fortnight earlier the Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, in its weekly 
review of foreign policy for the week ending March 25, 1904, had already 
remarked : — " So far as we can yet perceive, German interests could not be 
affected by exchanges of views relative to Morocco. In view of the repeated 
assurance given officially on the French side that France has in view neither 
conquest nor occupation, but seeks merely to open up the Sultanate of 
North-West Africa to European civilisation, the belief is warranted that 
German commercial interests in Morocco are not exposed to any risk. There 
is, therefore, no reason, from the German point of view, to regard the Anglo- 
French entente in preparation with hostile eyes." 

T.Y. 257 S 



THIRTY YEARS 

On April 12, in answer to a question on the subject in 
the Reichstag, the Imperial Chancellor, referring to 
the Anglo-French Agreement, said : — 

" We have no cause to apprehend that this Agreement was 
levelled against any individual Power. It seems to be an 
attempt to eliminate the points of difference between France 
and Great Britain by means of an amicable understanding. 
From the point of view of German interests we have nothing 
to complain of, for we do not wish to see strained relations 
between Great Britain and France, if only for the reason that 
such a state of affairs would imperil the peace of the world, 
the maintenance of which we sincerely desire. As regards the 
most important feature of the Agreement, Morocco, we have 
a substantial economic interest there. Therefore, it is 
essentially to our interest that peace and order should reign 
in that country ; we have no ground to fear that our economic 
interests in Morocco will be disregarded or injured by any 
other Power." x 

Count von Reventlow, in a speech in the Reichstag 
two days later (April 14, 1904), referred, however, to 
negotiations which had taken place between the 
Chancellor and France in which the question of a 
cession to Germany of a port on the Atlantic coast 
had been mooted. If any such suggestion was really 
made, it must have come from Germany, and would 
probably not have appeared feasible either to France 
or Great Britain. 



1 A pan-German organ, the Rbeinisch-Westfdliscbe Zeitung, on the pre- 
vious day (April n), however, struck a very different key. "Morocco," 
it said, "is a German concern. Germany must occupy herself with the 
question because of her ever-increasing population, Morocco being a suitable 
land for colonisation. Moreover, Germany is in need of naval bases. The 
Anglo-French entente has made that question acute. If Germany refrains 
from making claims, she will go empty-handed away from the partition of 
the world. As England is eliminated from the Moorish question, Germany 
has only France to deal with. The situation is so favourable that even 
Count von Biilow will have the courage to exploit it. Is the German Michael 
to get nothing ? The time has come when Germany must secure Morocco 
from the Atlas to the sea." 

258 



A NEW ERA— GERMANY 

On the same date, again speaking in the Reichstag, 
Count von Biilow said : — 

" We stand in a firm relationship of alliance with two 
Great Powers ; we maintain friendly relations with five other 
Powers, while our relations with France are tranquil and 
pacific, and, so far as we are concerned, will remain so." 



Only Professor Schiemann, in his weekly article in 
the Kreuz-Zeitung, seems to have at once spotted the 
truly weak point in the Morocco Convention. " So 
far as we are concerned," he wrote on April 13, " we 
shall have to take care that France sticks conscien- 
tiously in Morocco to the principle of the ' open door.' 
She has bound herself for thirty years ; after thirty 
years, and earlier, if she disregards her promise, the 
question will come up again." Professor Schiemann 
holds a very exceptional position in Germany, one 
not unlike that which Bagehot in his time held in this 
country. Detached from all personal advantage, 
posts or honours, his historical studies, especially his 
intimate knowledge of Russia (he was born in the 
Baltic provinces), long and close attention to all the 
passing events of current international politics, and 
keen practical intelligence have given him a unique 
place among the leading men of Germany. Though 
the Kreuz-Zeitung to which he contributes a weekly 
article on foreign affairs, is a reactionary newspaper, 
his articles are only reactionary in the sense that he 
regards the interest of his country, material, moral 
and political, as the dominant note in his treatment 
of all international questions. Many Englishmen at 
the London Congress of Historians in April, 1913, 
met Professor Schiemann and his charming wife, who 
spent some of her youth in England and speaks 

259 s 2 



THIRTY YEARS 

English with fluency. In the summer I had the 
pleasure of meeting my friend again in Norway, 
where he was staying as one of the Imperial 
visitors on board the Hohenzollern. The Emperor 
selected him as one of the guests at a lunch on Sir Max 
Waechter's beautiful yacht, the Rovenska, " to give 
you pleasure," as His Majesty was good enough to tell 
me : he could hardly have given me a greater one. 

" The Anglo-French Agreements," wrote Professor 
Schiemann again on June 29, 1904, " contain, we may 
say with perfect certainty, nothing that can disturb 
our equanimity. They have, as a fact, considerably 
contracted the area of possible differences between 
the two Western Powers, and that can only be satis- 
factory." 

" Germany's interest," he went on, " was, of course, affected 
by only two of the agreements, viz., those relating to Morocco 
and Egypt. It was of importance to Germany that her 
standing interests should not suffer. As regards Egypt, a 
telegram of June 25 showed they had been very satisfactorily 
assured. According to this telegram, we also have given our 
assent, hitherto withheld, to the Khedivial decree determining 
Egyptian financial conditions. As regards Morocco, we can 
have nothing to complain of, if French policy is not allowed 
to deviate from one of ' penetration ■pacijique,'' as it is euphe- 
mistically called, into a country which has entered a stage of 
internal and external crisis which it will take the very greatest 
efforts to overcome. With the thirty years for which the 
maintenance of the commercial status qud is assured, we may 
consider ourselves satisfied. Our political imagination does 
not reach far enough to picture France in 1934. It will 
certainly not be the same picture as that of to-day." 

The observations I have quoted above from Professor 
Schiemann's article are, I believe, an authentic de- 
scription of the policy of Germany, as the Emperor 
and the Imperial Chancellor determined at that time 
it should be, in regard to Morocco — that is to say, that 

260 



A NEW ERA— GERMANY 

Germany was not bound by the Anglo-French Agree- 
ment ; that for thirty years the " open door " was 
assured by it ; that on expiry of thirty years Germany, 
having reserved her rights, would be entitled to object 
to any closing of the door, though England had agreed 
beforehand to assent to it. This was not an unfriendly 
policy. From the standpoint of international politics, 
it was a perfectly logical position for a third Power to 
take up, and in fact nothing more was heard of the 
Morocco question for the time being. 

# # # * # 

There was another reason why Germany would 
rather welcome than find fault with the Agreement. 
The general impression in Germany throughout 1904 
was that the rapprochement between France and Great 
Britain tended to weaken the alliance between 
France and Russia. Any enduring friendship with 
both, owing to existing political conditions in both 
the Middle and the Far East, seemed impossible. 
The public excitement in England caused by the 
Dogger Bank affair and the exploits of the Russian 
cruisers, Petersburg and Smolensk, accentuated, if 
anything, this impression. 

In the autumn, in the course of conversation with 
Count Bernstorfr", then councillor of the German 
Embassy, now Ambassador to the United States (who 
was born in England while his father was Prussian 
Ambassador to the Court of St. James, and whose 
affection for the land of his birth is almost as great 
as that for the land of his descent), we spoke of the 
ill-feeling some political mischief-makers in both 
countries had been successful in stirring up. Nothing, 
he assured me, was farther from the German official 

261 



THIRTY YEARS 

mind than to do or say anything which could disturb 
the equanimity of Europe. He was convinced that 
all thinking Englishmen were well disposed towards 
Germany, but something, he thought, ought to be 
done to show public opinion generally that friend- 
ship with France did not entail hostility to Germany, 
that Germany did not, as some people seemed to 
suppose she must necessarily do, resent friendship 
between France and Great Britain, but on the contrary 
that she hailed any movement which tended to the 
maintenance of the peace of Europe. As I was on 
the point of starting for Germany, he suggested that 
on my return I might publish an article giving my 
impressions of German public opinion. My notorious 
connection with the Anglo-French entente would 
exclude any idea of a bias towards Anglo-German 
friendship as opposed to Anglo-French friendship. 

ijP ^F •¥£ tP w 

On my return from Germany I was asked by the 
Standard for an interview, which appeared in that 
paper on December 15 in the following form : — 

" The recent visit of Sir Thomas Barclay to Germany, 
though it was originally undertaken for other purposes, was 
at once regarded by the Press of Berlin as a mission of peace. 
It called forth so many friendly articles that the time seems 
opportune for inquiring whether it is not possible to establish 
good relations between two countries which have long been 
on what could scarcely be called the best of terms. One of 
our representatives called yesterday upon Sir Thomas Barclay, 
and at once put the question to him : ' Is an Anglo-German 
rapprochement possible, in view of the very strong animus 
displayed in both countries ? ' 

" ' To begin with,' he replied, ' the feeling against us in 
Germany, at all events, is not half as strong as the Press in 
both countries would lead one to believe. At the beginning 
of 1900 the feeling between France and England was as bad 
as it could be ; the pent-up bitterness engendered by the 

262 



A NEW ERA— GERMANY 

Fashoda incident was given full rein by the Boer war. The 
abuse of the gutter Press in Paris, and the publication of gross 
caricatures of our Queen, had aroused a corresponding anger 
| in England. In the January number of the Revue de Paris, 
so weighty a writer as M. Ernest Lavisse took an almost 
despairing view of the situation. There can be no doubt that 
the two countries were on the verge of war. Something had 
to be done, and somebody had to take the lead in doing it.' 

" Sir Thomas then briefly sketched the inception of the 
present Anglo-French entente, modestly omitting the strenuous 
part which he himself took in its accomplishment. 

" ' And you really think that, through appealing to the 
business instincts of England and Germany, a similar good 
feeling can be established ? ' was asked. 

" ' Most emphatically. Remember that only four years ago 
the bitterness between France and England was such that 
war seemed almost inevitable. At present there is no such 
extreme tension between England and Germany. We judge 
here far too much by the attitude of Berlin. Neither London 
nor the London Press can claim to speak for England ; to a 
still greater extent is it true that the voice of Berlin does not 
represent the feeling of Germany. Both Berlin and London 
are centres of diplomacy and finance, rather than of industry 
and democracy. Financiers do not dread a war as business 
men do. War brings grist to their mills in the shape of 
remunerative loans. I have a proverb of my own, which says 
that fools make war and clever men make profits. Leave 
Berlin aside, then, and the feeling in Germany is fairly evenly 
balanced. Hamburg is very friendly towards England, and 
so are most of the ports. Dresden, curiously enough, is 
decidedly anti-British, while Munich is indifferent. But 
Westphalia, the Lancashire and West Riding combined of 
Germany, is bent on peace. If it is true that " the interest 
of England is peace," it is far more true of Germany. She 
cannot afford the ever-increasing burden of naval expense, 
but she is driven to build battleships by the hostile tone of 
the British Press. Do not forget this, that every anti-German 
article in an English newspaper means more votes in Germany 
for the increase of the naval estimates. Do not forget either 
that, though we can dominate her fleet, she has an abundance 
of fast liners ready to be converted into commerce destroyers, 
and a war between the two countries would simply result in 
handing over the carrying trade of both to America. Truly, 
war is a game for fools.' 

263 



THIRTY YEARS 

" ' How would an Anglo-German rapprochement affect the 
Anglo-French entente ? ' 

" ' Surely not for the worse. No, the French would 
welcome such a rapprochement because it would largely secure 
the peace of Europe, which France desires above all other 
things. See what the Anglo-French entente has done for 
France. It has enabled both Governments to dispense with 
the increase of naval armaments as between ourselves. And 
France, free from a great preoccupation, has entered upon a 
period of social consolidation and internal reform. Witness 
the new Bill for dealing with the unemployed, the revision of 
the Civil Code, and the reduction of military service. There 
is nothing which patriotic Frenchmen can, and do, more 
ardently desire than the added sense of security which would 
be brought about by more friendly relations between England 
and Germany. And be sure that, sooner or later, thanks to 
the business instincts of the two great Teutonic nations, those 
relations will be established.' " 

In a judicious leading article on this interview the 
Standard made the following observations which 
seemed to show that the official feeling, which the 
Standard may be considered to have canvassed before 
expressing an opinion, was favourable to a rapproche- 
ment between England and Germany and did not 
think friendship with France stood in its way : — 

" Sensible and patriotic men in Great Britain and Germany 
alike have for some time past been concerned at the state of 
feeling which has been allowed to grow up between these 
countries. Sir Thomas Barclay did so much to bring about 
our wise and welcome understanding with France that his 
views on this topic are of peculiar interest . . . We have had 
no German Fashoda, and the Boer war is happily passing 
into ancient history. That it is to the interest of the two great 
Protestant mercantile States of Northern Europe to remain 
on good terms should need no demonstration. If ' the greatest 
of British interests is peace,' the proposition is also true of 
the German Empire, which has its Lancashire and Yorkshire 
in Westphalia and its Liverpool at the mouth of the Elbe. . . . 
We have our scaremongers and violent alarmists, gentlemen 
who cannot sleep at nights for thinking of the German spectre, 

264 



A NEW ERA— GERMANY 

and who, in their panic, are ready to advise us to take the 
most desperate expedients. Sometimes we are told that it 
must be our ceaseless preoccupation to prepare for that 
struggle to the death with Germany which is bound to come, 
and, sometimes, these fiery mentors warn us to forestall the 
inevitable by ourselves making the attack. . . . Nothing can 
be less excusable than the effort to represent to the peoples 
of two great nations that they must be enemies from the nature 
of things. It is especially unjustifiable in the case of Germany 
and England. Nature, it would seem, meant these two 
peoples of common stock and kindred creeds to be friends, 
even if history and circumstances may sometimes drive them 
into rivalry or antagonism. That the Germans are our 
competitors, energetic and formidable, in industry and 
commerce, and in maritime enterprise, is true enough. 
Germany has set herself to work — with a systematic thorough- 
ness which we should do better to imitate than to revile — to 
develop to the fullest possible extent the resources of the 
country and the physical and intellectual capacity of her 
people. That is a legitimate ambition. . . . True, the day 
may dawn when Germany, freed from her continental per- 
plexities, will at length launch herself boldly upon the seas 
and join in the struggle for the mastery of the extra-European 
world ; it is even conceivable that the enterprise may bring 
her into collision with ourselves. There will be plenty of 
time to work up hostility when, if ever, that prospect comes 
within reasonable distance of fulfilment ; x it does not take 
long to quarrel. Meanwhile, the two peoples may as well 
remain on amicable terms, pay due credit to the many qualities 
which they possess in common, and decline to pay attention 
to the perilous pessimism which exists that the prosperity 
and material progress of the one cannot be achieved without 
working injury to the other." 

A few days (December 23) after the appearance of 
this article the following Reuter's Agency communique 
appeared in the Berlin papers : — 

" In connection with the attention which the Norddeutsche 
Allgemeine Zeitung and other German newspapers are calling 
to Sir Thomas Barclay's statements in favour of better Anglo- 

This vision of a possibility which has since displaced the now obsolete 
industrial bogie is interesting. 

265 



THIRTY YEARS 

German relations and the favourable comments of the Standard 
on Sir Thomas Barclay's efforts, Reuter's agent learns 
that the views he expresses are entirely of a personal character 
and must not be regarded as a reflection of those of London's 
official circles. The relations between Germany and Great 
Britain, so far as practical politics are concerned, are quite 
satisfactory, but the idea that anything can happen calculated 
to weaken the cordial understanding between France and 
Great Britain would be altogether erroneous." 

For cool perversion of the facts and deliberate 
malevolence it would be difficult to find the equal of 
this perfidious attempt to produce the impression that 
the British Government was determined to discourage 
any popular desire for better relations with Germany. 

The Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung is the semi- 
official organ of the German Government. Everybody 
knows it as such, and there is reason to suppose that 
it never runs counter to the German Government's 
views. Its comment on this unfortunate communique 
was as follows : — 

" So far as the N.D.A.Z. is concerned, it has never by a 
single word suggested that the rapprochement between the 
two countries should proceed at the expense of England's 
friendly relations with France. Sir Thomas Barclay's life- 
work is there to negative the idea that a man, to whom the 
attenuation of the ill-feeling engendered by the Fashoda 
incident was essentially due, was likely to spoil his own work 
must necessarily have been far from our minds." 

The Tdglische Rundschau, a newspaper with pan- 
German proclivities, observed in reference to it : — 

" Sir Thomas Barclay's efforts to promote a better under- 
standing between Germany and Great Britain do not seem to 
have the approval of the English semi-official organ. . . . 
Everybody here knows what that means." 

At the time it was supposed to have proceeded from 
the British Foreign Office, and it consequently pro- 
duced a bad impression throughout Germany. I do 

266 



A NEW ERA— GERMANY 

not know what its origin was beyond that it was issued 
by Reuter's agent in Berlin. That Sir Frank Lascelles, 
the British Ambassador, himself a champion of good 
relations between Great Britain and Germany, was 
responsible for a statement evidently concocted to 
throw cold water on the reviving cordiality is out of 
the question. He probably satisfied the German 
Government as to this, seeing that a few days later I 
received, through the German Embassy in London, 
an official invitation from the president of the Handel- 
stag (Association of the Chambers of Commerce of 
Germany) to be their guest at a banquet on the 

following February 15. 

# * # * # 

Before accepting the invitation I took Reuter's 
communique as a warning, consulted French friends 
in Paris, and had myself interviewed by two leading 
French newspapers to see how my visit to Berlin 
would be regarded in France. Beyond the latent 
feeling about the lost provinces, there was at that time 
no hostility on the part of Frenchmen to Germany. 
The Anglo-French entente, far from stimulating ideas 
of revanche, had acted as a sort of alleviating influence, 
and Frenchmen felt it had lessened the danger of a 
conflict with Germany and therefore thought less 
about the subject. 

This did not convince some English friends, and 
after accepting the invitation I was shown, by way of 
further suasion, a letter from the editor of a leading 
London paper to one of its correspondents warning 
him not to give prominence to my visit, which was 
not regarded in London as either " important or 
desirable." 

This attitude in London did not prevent the visit 

267 



THIRTY YEARS 

from being an event of considerable importance, and 
provincial England did not by any means think it 
undesirable. And so it has always been in respect of 
the efforts which have been made to attenuate anti- 
German feeling in this country. 1 Never in Lancashire 
or the West Riding or in Scotland has there been 
any such feeling, and, while people in London were 
pooh-poohing my attempts to bring about a better 
understanding with Germany, I had the vigorous and 
unflinching support of the whole of industrial England 
and Scotland. 

On the eve of the meeting, as if the panic-mongers 
had been driven to desperation at the prospect of an 
Anglo-German rapprochement, the famous Eastleigh 
speech was manufactured. Mr. Arthur Lee denied 
the authenticity of the extracts telegraphed to the 
German Press, and there is no reason to doubt the 
accuracy and good faith of his disclaimer. Error or 
not, the effect was deplorable. 

In the Monthly Review of April, 1905, it was 
described as follows : — 

" When the telegraphic summary of Mr. Lee's Eastleigh 
after-dinner speech reached Berlin on February 4, it produced 
a strange shock in the Castle, the Foreign Office, and the 
Imperial Navy Office. It acted like a bolt from the blue, 
because assurances admitting of no doubt had been given on 
our side about our pacific intentions, whereby the German 

1 This cleavage between London and the provinces is one of the most 
interesting features of English political life. In 1910, when I was a can- 
didate for the parliamentary representation of Blackburn and the question 
of Tariff Reform was one of the bogies a Liberal candidate had to lay low, 
some of the arguments suggested to candidates from London caused much 
amusement among my supporters. One was the sending down of loaves of 
so-called German " black " bread to show to what we should be reduced if 
we adopted a duty on wheat. London people seem unable to realise that 
the political intelligence of the North of England is beyond being affected 
by such childish appeals to ignorance. 

268 



A NEW ERA— GERMANY 

scare of a few weeks before had been completely dissipated 
and shown to be groundless. But the surprise of those 
connected with the Flotten-V erein, and with the publicists 
whose cue is to agitate for an increase of battleships to the 
German fleet, was rapidly converted into something like 
elation, for they greeted the news as another hook upon 
which they could hang their agitation for more ships and 
acceleration of shipbuilding." 

I think a suspicion is warranted that those who were 
responsible for the Reuter's communique were also 
responsible for the garbled version of Mr. Lee's 
speech. 

The incident by the time (ten days later) I reached 
Berlin, in spite of the efforts of the Flotten-V erein to 
fan it into a panic, had blown over, and when con- 
versation with the Chancellor (Count von Billow) 
turned upon it, he told me it was not easy to steer 
amid the currents and eddies of the public opinion of 
a highly-educated people, which had enough historical 
knowledge to know the sins of others, and not enough 
practical experience to avoid them itself. The Govern- 
ment, however, had been taken aback by Mr. Lee's 
speech, and orders had been given for national 
defence in accordance with the possible emergencies 
it seemed to foreshadow. 

*.M. J|- M. «Mi 

ne *?p w w 

Like the Kaiser and most of the great men of 
the Empire, Prince von Billow speaks English 
perfectly. 

" All business and travelled Germans are Anglo- 
phil," said he. " The English are the Germans' com- 
mercial teachers. In England they have learnt the 
methods which have brought them prosperity, and if 
they have been able in some cases to outrace their 
teachers, they honour them none the less and are 

269 



THIRTY YEARS 

none the less grateful to them. Among them, in 
your efforts to draw the two peoples together, you 
will find only friends of England. It seems at first 
sight anomalous, but the anti-English feeling in this 
country is strongest among the professional classes 
who have had a learned education. " 

" The paradox of the narrow-mindedness of men 
of books," I ventured to suggest. 

" In a way, yes." 

" We Germans," he went on, " at least the gebildeter 
Stand (the educated middle class), have history on 
the brain. It is an intellectual disease which makes 
Germans see current events out of focus. Far-off 
happenings stand out in their minds as large as the 
nearer ones. We see them without the sense of 
perspective that fixes their true value. The Professor 
and his pupil are as indignant at wrongs inflicted on 
Germany a century or even centuries ago, as they 
are at what happens to-day, and publicists seriously 
write historical books to show up the evil ways of 
their neighbours, as if they were might be precedents 
for action to-day." 

These may not be Prince von Billow's exact words, 
but they are the sense of the view he expressed to me 
in 1905. 

Prince von Biilow, by the way, is a most interesting 
personality, and though he differs from the class just 
described, he is, nevertheless, thoroughly German in 
other characteristics. 

There is a German humour, ironical, learned, clever 
and Horatian in character, of which Jean Paul was the 
literary apostle. You meet with it more commonly 
among those who are neither public men nor writers. 
It is the sardonic humour of the satirist, who despises 

270 



A NEW ERA— GERMANY 

action as leading nowhere worth going to, and finds 
the joy of observant contemplation sufficient in itself. 
There are exceptions. Prince Bismarck was one, 
Prince von Biilow is another. 

I leave it to the eye-witness who wrote the article 
above referred to in the Monthly Review to describe 
my visit to Berlin and its consequences. 

" In the month of February the German Associated 
Chambers of Commerce (the H andehtag) are wont to hold their 
annual meetings, and the members dine together on that 
occasion at a banquet. The Handelstag determined to invite 
Sir Thomas Barclay this year to come over to meet and 
converse with its members, and it should be noted that the 
gentlemen who then foregathered in Berlin represented every 
branch of trade and industry in the German Empire. The 
demonstration that was then enacted was not by the official 
world, but was marshalled by the representatives of the 
commercial intelligence of the land, the chief manufacturers 
and the chief merchants, whose action was only warmly 
approved and supported by the Government. There was no 
gush about it. The whole series of receptions was characterised 
by dignity and solidity befitting the present independent 
condition of German trade and industry. 

" On February 15 the banquet, to which the Associated 
Chambers had invited Sir Thomas Barclay, was held. He 
delivered his speech in German, and touched the chief chord 
at once by saying that the two peoples did not know one 
another well enough. This want of knowledge of one another 
was one of the chief causes of misunderstanding between 
nations. 

" ' I need not tell you,' said Sir Thomas Barclay, ' that the 
present strained relations between Germans and Englishmen 
react very unfavourably on trade. Every pin-prick in the 
Press is accepted as emanating from responsible sources, and, 
despite the efforts of the two Governments, mutual ill-will 
is engendered, rendering the future uncertain and discouraging 
every kind of enterprise. Let us join hands and declare that 
it is our joint interest to further good relations between the 
two countries. The world is large enough for both of us, 
and our industrial rivalry is a manly struggle, that develops 
and hardens our manly force. Let us, if possible, lessen our 

271 



THIRTY YEARS 

mutual distrust, which is the cause for increasing our arma- 
ments against one another. I trust the movement will meet 
with support all over Germany, and that my fellow-country- 
men and you will be convinced that it is our common interest 
to show patience towards one another, and to bring about a 
close union among the Western Powers for the purpose of 
maintaining good and pacific relations.' 

" In response to this speech, which was received with 
unanimous, loud, and lasting applause from all sides, the 
president of the Associated Chambers of Commerce, Geheimer- 
Commerzienrat Frentzel, rose to reply. He said : — 

" ' I am entitled to speak on behalf of the representatives 
of German trade and German industry who are here assembled, 
and on behalf of those who sent them, and in their name to 
endorse the views just expressed. And I think I am not 
wrong in saying chat the other professions, and amongst 
them I include all the educated classes of our Fatherland, 
are of the same opinion, and isolated utterances to the contrary 
that may be found in individual organs of the Press do not 
meet with real support in Germany. 

" ' Is it not quite natural that we should always have seen 
in England a nation that stands in close and congenial rela- 
tions to ourselves, especially as the political history of the 
last centuries show that in this field also the two countries 
have almost always followed similar aims ; while statistics 
demonstrate that as regards exports and imports each is 
amongst the other's best customers ? 

" ' We wish that relations of honest friendship may exist 
between the two countries, such as are characteristic of manly 
and energetic natures, each side allowing for the peculiarities 
of the other, and each ready to give the other his due. . . . 
I again thank Sir Thomas Barclay very cordially for coming 
to-night and for giving us an opportunity for exchanging our 
thoughts ; and I trust that what we have said will be gladly 
re-echoed in the minds of our fellow-countrymen on both 
sides.' 

" If Sir Thomas Barclay's visit to Berlin has attained 
nothing else — and pessimists will not be wanting to see nothing 
in it but an interchange of phrases — it has at least demon- 
strated beyond the power of denial the ponderous fact that 
the manufacturers and merchants of Germany have 
unanimously declared at their this year's meeting in Berlin 
that they have no sympathy whatever with those who foment 
enmity between Germany and England, and that they desire 

272 



A NEW ERA— GERMANY 

to see the two countries living on amicable terms whilst 
continuing their competitive struggle in their respective 
fields of labour." 



If England had responded at the time to the 
German tender of friendship instead of treating it 
with scornful indifference there might have been no 
German rivalry to-day in naval armaments. It is a 
great mistake to try to deal with international ques- 
tions on abstract, historical or geographical principles 
only. Even the most undemocratic of Governments 
would feel very uneasy, if public opinion did not 
move with it, and the feelings of a nation, as only 
too many recent instances show, are apt to outrun 
arguments. 



t.y. 273 



CHAPTER XXIV 



The following month a great change came over 
German policy. People still speak of the mystery of 
the Emperor's visit to Tangiers. 

In subsequent recrimination the German Govern- 
ment complained that the Anglo-French Agreement 
with reference to Morocco had not been notified to 
Germany. Yet Count von Bulow had deliberately 
stated that he saw nothing in the Agreement detri- 
mental to German interests. Nor in fact, was there 
anything to complain of in an Agreement the opera- 
tion of which was confined to the parties to it and 
which undertook to respect the independence and 
integrity of the Sultanate. That it secured the " open 
door" for only thirty years between them did not, as 
Professor Schiemann pointed out at the time, bind 
Germany. What then happened to disaffect the 
Government at Berlin ? 

That something was " in the wind " became evident 
as early as March 19, when the well-informed Times 
correspondent at Tangiers telegraphed his appre- 
hension about coming complications in Morocco. 
The French mission had made the fatal mistake of 
" intentionally or unintentionally " giving the im- 
pression that it spoke in the name of Europe. " Ger- 
man commercial interests in Morocco," wired this 
correspondent, " are of great importance, and it is 
vital to these interests that the status qud should be 

274 



A " REVANCHE " 

maintained. Doubtless, it is the French intention 
equally to maintain the status qud, but delicate 
negotiations in a fanatical Mahometan country, at a 
long distance from the coast, might any day reach a 
pitch when diplomacy must make way for more 
serious forces, while, in any case, Germany has no 
desire to court effacement and see French influence 
exclusively predominant in Morocco." x 

That an Imperial visit was projected, I may 
mention, was known at Tangiers on March 19. The 
Emperor landed at Tangiers, I may also remind the 
reader, on March 31. In connection with this 
announcement, the Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung 
on March 20 recalled the assurance given by the 
Emperor to the King of Spain at Vigo in 1904 that 
Germany was not seeking to gain any territorial 
advantages in Morocco, but would confine herself to 
standing up for equal commercial rights. 2 

In his famous Bremen speech of March 22 the 
Emperor described the German Empire as a quiet, 
honest, and peaceful neighbour ; and added that if 
ever history should come to speak of a German world- 
wide Empire, or a world-wide dominion of the Hohen- 
zollerns, this empire, this dominion, would have been 
founded upon conquests gained not by the sword but 
by the mutual confidence of those nations which press 
towards the same goal." 3 

This speech, far from seeming to portend any 
aggressive tendencies on the part of the Emperor's 
Government, was referred to at the time as the 
Emperor's " pacific speech." 

Nor do I think that the Emperor's visit to Tangiers 

1 The Times, March 20, 1905. 
a The Times, March 21, 1905. 
* The Times, March 24, 1905. 

275 T 2 



THIRTY YEARS 

was intended to do more than prevent a sort of pre- 
scription, based on the notoriety of the Anglo-French 
barter of interests in Egypt and Morocco, from being 
set up at some later date against Germany. This, 
moreover, was quite consistent with the attitude 

Professor Schiemann had forecast. 

# # # * # 

As it is still currently supposed in both England 
and France that Germany's brusque entry upon the 
scene was more or less gratuitous and that she inter- 
vened in view of possible interests to come, I may 
mention as explanatory facts that Germany had con- 
siderable interests in Morocco, in some respects 
greater interests than France. In 1901 the tonnage of 
ships calling at Morocco ports was 434,000 for Great 
Britain, 260,000 for Germany, 239,000 for France, 
and 198,000 for Spain. At all the ports, except 
San, England is an " easy first," but as between 
France and Germany the latter is ahead at Casablanca, 
much ahead at Mazagan, and overwhelmingly ahead 
at Safi. At Mogador Germany shows a tonnage of 
44,000 against France with 24J000. 1 As regards 
imports into Morocco, Great Britain in 1901 stood first 
with 24,ooo,ooof., against France with io,ooo,ooof., 
and Germany and Belgium with 3,ooo,ooof. each. 
Spain could only show 6oo,ooof. Of exports from 
Morocco Great Britain received i2,ooo,ooof., France 
6,ooo,ooof., Spain 5,ooo,ooof., and Germany 4,ooo,ooof. 

Germany's interest, it is seen, was substantial, and 
among Morocco ports Mazagan and Mogador were 
places at which Germany was developing a consider- 
able Morocco trade. Agadir only came to the front 
because the Mannesmarms, an important German 

1 Great Britain's figure is 63,000- 
276 



A " REVANCHE " 

house, had interests there. That the German carrying 
trade looked forward to possession of a coaling station 
on the western coast of Morocco was well known, and, 
if at the Algeciras Conference she did not obtain one, 
it was not for want of an earnest effort on her part to 
that end. 

I remember at the time of the Conference discussing 
the subject with Sir Charles Dilke at dinner at Mrs. 
Trower's. He took the view that there was no danger 
involved for Gibraltar in Germany having a coaling 
station at Mogador. On the contrary, the more 
Germany depended on her own coaling stations, the 
more vulnerable she would be in contending with a 
Power which had the means of closing them. This 
might also be said of colonial settlements. The sub- 
ject was one which lent itself to considerable and even 
warm argument. 

But that is by the way. Germany undeniably had 
quite enough important interests in Morocco to 
justify her insisting that the integrity and indepen- 
dence of Morocco should be respected, and, seeing 
that the Anglo-French Agreements of April, 1904, 
gave a solemn assurance that neither Power had any 
intention to the contrary, the Imperial visit in itself 
was only a way of giving notice to Morocco and the 
rest of the world that a fait accompli or a secret under- 
standing between Great Britain and France would 
not be allowed to alter Germany's relations to Morocco. 



Now, among the inconveniences of secret clauses, 
the greatest of all seems never, so far as I am aware, 
to have been insisted upon : it is very difficult to keep 
them secret for long. 

277 



THIRTY YEARS 

In the case of the Anglo-French secret clauses they 
were known not only in the British and French 
Foreign Offices, but were communicated to the 
Russian Government, as allies entitled to know to 
what international engagements France was com- 
mitting herself, and to the Spanish Government, 
whose consent to the possible partition was one of 
their conditions. Thus four Foreign Offices were 
acquainted with the secret clauses in question. Does 
anybody in the least familiar with diplomacy and 
foreign affairs suppose that, with so many persons 
" in the know," the existence of a secret treaty could 
long remain hidden from the knowledge of any well- 
trained diplomatic service ? 

The object of secrecy being to conceal an ultimate 
purpose from the knowledge of others whose interests 
might lead them to raise objections, merely to have 
good reason to suspect the existence of secret clauses, 
though their precise character be unknown, would 
account for action calculated to defeat their probable 
purpose. 

Thus, who knows whether possible secret trans- 
actions between the French and German Govern- 
ments with a view to compensation to be given to 
Germany, which at the time excited the suspicion of 
the Portuguese Cabinet, did not, at the same time, 
excite suspicion in the Italian Cabinet and precipitate 
a war which has opened up the whole Near Eastern 
Question, and given rise to two other murderous 
and disastrous wars, the consequences of which are 
perhaps not yet final even for Western Powers ? 

Now, while the published agreements declared that 
no modification as regards the integrity and indepen- 
dence of Morocco was meditated, and M. Delcasse 

278 



A " REVANCHE " 

again and again insisted upon this in his diplomatic 
correspondence and public declarations, these secret 
agreements were based on the assumption that a 
change affecting the political status qub of Morocco was 
not a remote contingency, and that a partition of the 
country in view of this contingency would necessarily 
follow. 

■JF -jp ^P ^F tF 

The fait accompli, again, as every student of 
diplomatic history knows, plays a deciding part in 
international affairs out of all proportion to that of 
considerations of justice or propriety. To dislodge a 
defiant Power in possession implies war or reprisals 
to which modern States hesitate to resort, except 
in cases involving the most vital issues, or where a 
wave of uncontrollable popular feeling breaks loose 
from its original causes and carries a Government off 
its feet. The Morocco question, in itself involving 
only economic interests, before the month of June had 
expanded into a general question in which all Germany 
had the impression that the honour and prestige of 
the country were at stake. When M. Bihourd, the 
French Ambassador in Berlin, wrote to Paris on 
June 23 : — " I found the Prince von Biilow very 
courteous, but he came back several times to the 
necessity of not allowing this ' unfortunate, most 
unfortunate question ' to drag and of not tarrying on 
a road beset with ' precipices and chasms,' " these 
were no vain words. I happen to know how strong 
the feeling was. Perhaps Count von Biilow had not 
foreseen the dangerous vehemence to which German 
popular feeling would be roused, and I believe he 
endeavoured with genuine alarm, after he saw the 
danger, to stem the torrent his attempt to prevent 

279 



THIRTY YEARS 

a fait accompli in Morocco from being sprung on 
Europe had let loose. 

# # # # * 

Great Britain could not in view of the Agreement 
of April 4, 1904, and the reciprocal compensation of 
interests in Egypt and Morocco resulting from it, enjoy 
her share of the bargain without helping France to 
get hers. British " national honour " in its proper 
sense was pledged to support France, and, as a fact, 
Great Britain did honestly and completely fulfil 
her engagement. She stood loyally by France in 
the tribulations of 1905, throughout the Conference of 
Algeciras, during the Agadir affair, and, if peace in 
1905 and 191 1 was preserved, in spite of the heated 
state of public opinion in both France and Germany, 
it was due to England's standing resolutely beside 
France as she did till arrangements with Germany 
were completed and France obtained the quid pro quo 
which fell to her in the bargain of 1904. In the crisis 
of 1905, German public opinion left England com- 
pletely out of the question, and even a strong pro- 
English agitation was being carried on in Germany 
as well as a pro-German one in England all the time. 
During the second crisis England came into the oper- 
and declared her intention to stand by France. 

It is no longer of much importance whether France 
was justified in undertaking the expedition to Fez 
which brought about the crisis, or whether German 
diplomacy was " brutal " or not in its methods. 
England was pledged to support France and she 
did so, and provoked a revulsion of public feeling 
■in Germany against her which quite overshadowed 
any feeling against France which had survived the 
crisis of 1905. 

280 



A " REVANCHE " 

But all this Western fever is over now. In con- 
nection with the settlement in the Near East, Great 
Britain and Germany, on the one hand, have been 
working together to secure a permanent settlement 
in the Balkans, and France and Germany, on the 
other, are adjusting their interests in Asia Minor. 



As regards the future, the view that there is no 
public opinion in Germany or that the Emperor and 
his Government can engineer it as they choose must 
be dismissed from diplomatic calculations as no longer 
trustworthy. German public opinion may not have 
the experienced self-reliance of English public opinion, 
but that it is stronger than the will of even a popular 
Emperor and a powerful and well-organised Govern- 
ment is now beyond doubt. 

The late German ambassador to this country, Baron 
Marschall von Bieberstein, by the by, took a different 
view of public opinion. I met him several times at 
the Hague Conference in 1907 and in the winter of 
1908-9 at Constantinople. The Baron had the 
greatest contempt for public opinion. It was what 
the newspapers chose to make it, he told me, and a 
Government that could not control the newspapers 
was not worth its salt. I asked him how a Govern- 
ment could bring a prosperous newspaper under 
control. " By banging the door in its face," said 
the Baron. 



A war between the two great Continental Powers of 
the West would be a calamity out of all proportion 
to any result conceivable. Defeat of one or the other 

281 



THIRTY YEARS 

could only shift the spirit of revanche from one side 
of the frontier to the other. Are they suffering 
already from old age and unable to throw off their 
grievances and place their permanent interests and 
those of generations to come above their amour 
propre? Besides, France has had her revanche in 
Morocco. Nobody who thinks dispassionately over 
the events of the last six years can fail to see that 
Germany was defeated in one of the keenest diplo- 
matic contests in current history. I have recently 
had an opportunity of seeing with what bitterness 
Germans, from the highest to the lowest, feel how little 
influence the possession of a magnificent army and 
pride-inspiring navy was able to exercise in the 
denoument of the diplomatic drama which added a 
magnificent province to the colonial empire of 
France. What other European State during the last 
forty years has added to its dominions such fields for 
immediate enterprise, situated at her very door, as 
Tunis and Morocco ? Yet she has no overflowing 
population, no economic problems of intense urgency, 
no vital political anxieties, and is still unsatisfied. 
While their insane wrangling has been occupying the 
attention of the three Powers concerned, their com- 
mercial and industrial interests in the Near, Middle 
and Far East have been allowed to drift, and others 
have reaped the benefit which generally accrues to 
their pacific neighbour from the wrangling of nations. 
The wrangling of France and Germany, as England's 
immediate neighbours, however, involves considera- 
tions under which she can never be tertius gaudens. 
England's greatest interest is that they join her in 
the preservation of their common interests through- 
out the world and the securing of that European 

282 



A "REVANCHE" 

peace which was and still is the object of the Entente 

Cordiale. 

# * # * # 

An old friend, editor of a leading Northern paper, 
wrote me in the autumn of 191 2 : — " Do you not 
sometimes mourn at the frightful perversion of the 
Entente Cordiale from an instrument of peace into 
the greatest menace now existing of European war ? 
Nobody has written the history of the change. Have 
you ever thought of doing it ? " 

The events which have been used to pervert the 
character of the entente are too recent for me to venture 
to present them in a trustworthy perspective. The 
change itself shows how difficult it has become for 
any Foreign Minister or Foreign Office to keep con- 
trol of all the varied interests of a composite State 
like the British Empire. 

That the entente was perverted is beyond question, 
that on many sides for purposes which may have been 
patriotic, but were certainly misguided, it was 
deliberately made to appear as an anti-German move- 
ment is a notorious fact. Fortunately wiser counsels 
have again prevailed. A few months ago I should 
still have followed my friend's suggestion. To-day 
it would serve no useful object to denounce the 
fomentors of international strife. They now see the 
folly of the agitation which sapped the foundations 
of the European concert. Until then it had preserved 
us from wars which immediately followed its 
disruption. 



283 



CHAPTER XXV 

PAST AND PRESENT EFFORTS DANGER OF DRIFT 

With the last chapter terminated the thirty years 
of my Anglo-French career. 

I had seen the Republic grow up — the effects of the 
war of 1870 evolve into distrust, jealousy, and hatred 
of England ; France ally herself with England's 
declared foe; even the two enemies of 1870 draw 
closer in their common opposition to their island 
neighbour ; then, the reversal of this insensate Anglo- 
French hostility, due to a movement which stirred 
the live subsoil of modern democracy ; then, again, 
underhand scheming which gave reaction its chance, 
and anti-German movements started in both England 
and France, which after a fitful success in some parts 
of England and absolute failure in others, have nearly 
died out on this side of the Channel. 

In defence of my Anglo-French work, in 1905 I em- 
barked on a new campaign of resistance to this new re- 
action, and with the development of this campaign my 
reminiscences cease in 1907 to be mainly Anglo-French. 

TT TV" ■%? ^F 7t* 

Has the entente come to stay ? 

If we glance back over the nineteenth century to 
its outset we shall find that in 1801 London received 
with enthusiasm Colonel de Lauriston, A.D.C. to the 
First Consul, who came as bearer of the ratification 
of the Peace Preliminaries ; that public rejoicing 
greeted Marshal Soult in 1838 as Envoy of Louis 
Philippe to Queen Victoria's coronation ; that a 

284 



PAST AND PRESENT EFFORTS 

" cordial spirit " prevailed at the interview of Eu in 
1843, when the Queen of England and the King of the 
French " kissed each other with tenderness " ; that 
under Napoleon III. royal visits were exchanged at 
Paris and Cherbourg and at Windsor and Osborne 
amid the booming of cannon and enthusiastic leading 
articles ; and that there was a great deal of semi- 
official talk about an " entente cordiale " in 18 14, 1850, 
1853, and i860. 

In none of these successive revivals of Anglo-French 
friendliness did the people of either country take any 
part save that of standing on the pavement and 
cheering the passing monarchs. 

There was one exception, due to popular effort 
on both sides ; the recent visit of Anatole France to 
London and his reception at a meeting of the 
Fabian Society reminded me of it. It was so in- 
teresting that I venture on a digression. It was the 
now forgotten meeting of the French Possibilists and 
British Trade Union leaders in Paris in 1883, which was 
a sort of Anglo-French rapprochement of working men. 
From the point of view of its immediate object it was 
a failure. But it brought out vividly the difference 
of character in their attitude towards questions of 
the distribution of property between the Englishmen 
and Frenchmen who attended it. The latter called 
themselves Socialists. The special theory which dis- 
tinguished the Possibilists from other Socialists was 
that they sought the achievement of their aims 
rather by legislative pressure than by revolutionary 
methods. For " whole-hog " Socialism, as in the case 
of German Social Democracy, in the sense of investing 
the State with the power to absorb the citizen energies, 

285 



THIRTY YEARS 

however, the French have no real vocation. They are 
by nature individualists. The strong attachment to 
the principle of private as distinguished from public 
property, and of equality in the distribution of private 
property as distinguished from its centralisation which 
characterises the institutions of France, are but mani- 
festations of this individualism. In practice it works 
out in the compulsory subdivision of the parental 
estate among the children in equal shares, in diffi- 
culties placed by fiscal legislation in the way of realty 
changing hands, in restraints provided to prevent 
spendthrifts from dissipating their patrimony, etc. 

The English trade unionist has a much greater 
power than the French Socialist of self-subordination 
to the common cause. He does not call himself a 
Socialist, but in essential respects he is one. 

The difference was brought out at the meeting in 
question. Men like Bailey, Burnett, Broadhurst and 
Shipton, as one of the Possibilists said to me, were 
mere collective capitalists and as alien to the aims of 
the French proletariate as any exploiteur industriel. It 
was fortunate that they did not understand each 
other, and that a man of the ability of Adolphe 
Smith, acting as interpreter, was able to attenuate the 
marked temperamental differences between them. 
Far from there being any common ground of theory 
or practice between them, neither side seemed to have 
any ultimate object at all. The Possibilists, among 
the seething, unsorted mass of revolutionary Socialism 
were simply a milder section who represented, as 
opposed to Extremists, the methods of Opportunism 
Gambetta had succeeded in implanting among Con- 
stitutional Republicans, but the spirit of revolt against 
prevailing social inequalities, which is the keynote of 

286 



PAST AND PRESENT EFFORTS 

French Socialism, remained unchanged. Even the 
Sunday go-to-meeting clothes of the Englishmen 
irritated the French workman in his slouch hat and 
working garb, for the Paris working man regards 
his working garb as the outward manifestation of 
his status, and, far from wishing to look indistinguish- 
able from the bourgeois, he seeks to accentuate the 
difference. " A seedy-looking lot," said one of our 
working men. " lis ont Pair de sacres vendus," said 
a Frenchman who, unable to stand the sight of these 
well-fed Yorkshiremen any longer, clapped on his 
feutre and dashed headlong with oaths to the door, 
in spite of Adolphe Smith's ingenious attempts to 
make the parties believe they quite understood and 
sympathised with each other. 

At the final meeting at some salle in the neighbour- 
hood of the Place de la Bastille, Bailey, the chairman 
of the Parliamentary Committee, made a valedictory 
oration in the temperate style of his day. It was 
not the thing that the audience expected. Adolphe 
Smith had to " translate " it into such an outburst 
of revolutionary emotion as the prevailing sentiment 
demanded. Shouts of " Vive Bailey ! " with waving 
of hats and clapping of hands, greeted his vision of 
the future of the proletariate, its victorious march 
onward to realisation of those ideals which had blown 
down the walls of the Bastille — onward and onward 
until all the walls still standing of capitalist tyranny 
would be stormed and reduced to dust. 

The wild cheering disconcerted Bailey, who turned 
to me and asked what it was in his speech that had 
evoked such applause. 

" Your brilliant reference to the storming of the 
Bastille." 

287 



THIRTY YEARS 

" My reference to the storming of the Bastille ! I ? " 
Bailey's bewildered look is not a thing one can 
forget. 

A difference between them which much impressed 
the Frenchman was that the better-groomed English- 
man was ready to contribute his 45. a week to a 
common fighting fund where the Frenchmen could 
not be got to contribute 4^., as one of the leaders, who 
through my medium was comparing notes with 
Burnett, told me. In this subordination of the indi- 
vidual to the common cause, much as the term 
Socialism is disliked in England, the English have a 
natural aptitude for Socialism, which the French 
decidedly have not, however much the term may appeal 
to the working populations of over-crowded French 
cities. Instances of the harmlessness in practice of 
French Socialism are of constant occurrence. Socialist 
majorities and a Socialist Mayor of Lille have only 
tended to municipalise work long since municipalised 
in Great Britain to a much greater extent. When 
M. Augagneur, the Socialist Mayor of Lyons, was 
in office, his Socialism went no farther than sup- 
pression of the octroi, a most commendable reform, 
the municipalising of the water-power of the Rhone, 
and a few other services which brought Lyons within 
measurable distance of the municipalisation of any 
of our larger cities. This Socialist mayor, though 
still a Socialist, has since been Governor of Madagascar 
and, as a Senator, Minister of Public Works. The 
practical goal of Socialism in France seems, as one of 
our L.C.C. wags said to me in connection with the 
visit of the L.C.C. to Paris, to be to catch up our L.C.C. 
Moderates. A Progressist would make a French 
Socialist turn giddy ! 

288 



PAST AND PRESENT EFFORTS 

But, as I have said, this Socialist-Trade Union 
gathering, however interesting in itself, made no 
mark on public opinion either. 

The Entente Cordiale had been hitherto a mere 
phrase. The Governments of the two countries had 
used it again and again to describe co-operation 
between them in different cases of joint action. In 
after-dinner eloquence it was usual to assume that 
it existed, but in reality the two nations had never 
been near enough to each other to have any cordial 
understanding, that is any general understanding, 
for each other's feelings or for each other's require- 
ments or ambitions. These passing and casual ententes 
had had no roots which could penetrate into the 
subsoil of national sentiment, and at the slightest 
contrary breeze they had always toppled over. It was 
only when the roots of an entente had sunk into the 
deeper strata of the people of both countries, and 
awakened among classes, who had never paid much 
attention to their national interests abroad, a con- 
sciousness of the solidarity, among civilised com- 
munities, of the humble who pass their lives on the 
brink of destitution and yet pay with their lives for 
the glory of the great — it was only when joint action 
by these masses of the two democracies became a fact 
— that any permanent peace between Englishmen and 
Frenchmen could be brought about. Government in 
these two countries holds the reins by the grace of 
these classes. It was their indifference in the matters 
at issue which stood in the way and which had to be 

overcome. 

# # # # # 

The distinguishing feature of the present entente 

T.Y. 289 U 



THIRTY YEARS 

is that it found its most congenial soil among the 
business and popular elements of the two nations, and 
that, instead of being officially fostered, it was treated 
with indifference, if not with discouragement, by the 
governing classes till it overwhelmed them. 

In this respect the entente is so entirely new in its 
character that it is futile to compare it with any 
previous movement. It belongs, moreover, to a new 

era in the development of international politics. 

* * # * # 

For some time back it has been customary to regard 
foreign affairs as too complicated a matter for even 
Parliament to deal with, and with the growth of the 
theory, of which Lord Rosebery was the political god- 
father, of the continuity of foreign affairs, there has 
been a tendency to accentuate this removal of foreign 
affairs from the national ken. This, in turn, has 
produced a reaction in the contrary sense. As the 
nation is responsible for its international affairs and 
its parliamentary representatives deny themselves a 
voice in their direction, there is at present no means 
of influencing foreign policy except through public 
opinion. We have, thus, seen a British foreign policy 
in the Middle East, which a number of well-informed 
British citizens deemed contrary to British interests, 
checked, not by any action of Parliament, but by that 
of private individuals and one or two independent 
newspapers. 

In the case of Anglo-French relations, Lord Lans- 
downe and M. Delcasse, seconded by our late King and 
M. Loubet, utilised the great popular movement on 
both sides of the Channel in 1900 to 1903, and broke 
the continuity of the policy of their predecessors. 
To their skill was due its rapid translation into action. 

290 



PAST AND PRESENT EFFORTS 

But for that popular movement, any fresh official 
attempt to bring about an entente would probably 
have had the fate of previous efforts, which fizzled out 
at the tail of the occasion which gave rise to them. 

Nations in the common life of States are the indi- 
viduals. Like individual persons, they seem actuated 
by subtle impulses which, in defiance of all legislative 
or official attempts at guidance, determine movements 
of the public mind as if it had a vitality of its own. 

The Anglo-French entente is probably the result of 
focussing a number of these impulses. 

One of these was possibly the fact that in the 
nineties there grew up a demand in France for facilities 
for the study of modern languages, as a reaction 
against dependence on foreigners for the purpose of 
international business correspondence, which led to 
many French parents sending their sons for a part of 
their education to England as France's nearest neigh- 
bour and largest customer. These boys came back 
enthusiastic about English school life, and a greater 
interest in England grew up among the French 
industrial middle class. Frenchmen then began to 
travel as never before. The French Government 
and the educational and universitv authorities 
encouraged this new tendency and entrusted missions 
of inquiry to young travellers, and in fact in no 
country at the present day are men better informed 
about British institutions, domestic and colonial, than 
the younger generations of contemporary Frenchmen. 1 

■JF W Tr "ir W 

1 This spirit is now becoming so general that the trips to Berlin, organised 
by the Journal cTAllemagne, a French paper published in Berlin by a band 
of energetic and public-spirited young Frenchmen and Alsatians, have 
drawn as many as a thousand Frenchmen and Frenchwomen at a time to 
see the German capital. 

29I U 2 



THIRTY YEARS 

The removal of the old gag of Anglo-French 
animosity, moreover, has let loose the spirit of expan- 
sion which underlies all human character. In France 
it does not take the form of creating large families and 
of colonisation, but that of a desire to propagate 
the French language and literature and intellectual 
influence. Hence the renewed activity in this country 
and elsewhere of the Alliance francaise, a wide-spread 
and powerful society which exists for this very purpose. 
Hence, too, a similar activity of the French universities, 
of that of Lille for instance, which has formed a branch, 
the Institut francais du Royaume Uni> at Marble Arch 
House, under the direct patronage of M. Lyon, 
Rector of the University of Lille, with a professor 
of that University, M. Schatz, as its managing officer. 1 
The University of Grenoble has formed a branch 
at Florence, the University of Nancy another at 
St. Petersburg, and the University of Bordeaux an 
important one at Madrid. This, by-the-by, makes 
me think it is surely time to carry out my scheme of 
purchasing the Scots College in Paris and making it 
a branch of the Scottish Universities ! 2 

This active French interest in England and the 
English and the intelligent co-operation of the two 
peoples in civilising influences, their joint action in 
the promotion of common political interests, and the 
constant and ever-increasing intercourse between them 
are not only beneficial results in themselves, but 

1 The Institut was founded by a young French lady, Mile. d'Orliac, who 
has modestly taken the post of secretary. The managing committee is 
composed of Sir George Askwith (chairman), Sir Thomas Barclay, Sir 
Thomas Elliott, Sir Almeric FitzRoy, Cloudesley Brereton, Esq., T. H. 
Carson, Esq., K.C., M. de Coppet, Baron Heyking, M. Karminski, 
M. Lebegue, Rev. Dr. MacGowan, and Emile Mond, Esq. 

2 See full particulars, pp. 359 et seq. 

292 



PAST AND PRESENT EFFORTS 

the means by which Anglo-French friendship and 
peace can become a great factor in the destiny of 
mankind and the centre of an illuminating influence 
in a new and higher civilisation, of which signs are 
not wanting, and in which the claims of humanity and 
fellowship are not excluded by the sincerest patriotism. 
Anglo-French friendship stands, therefore, for some- 
thing more far-reaching than merely political friend- 
ship between the two peoples concerned. Meanwhile, 
because it can be effective for this greater purpose, 
no effort should be spared to foster it in every 
stratum and class of the population, and in every 
branch of the public and local activities of the two 
nations, and to spread its influence over the length 
and breadth of the two lands. 



Among the most powerful influences which of late 
years have contributed to the development of an 
independent public opinion in France must be 
included the provincial Press. The old provincial 
distrust of Paris has been largely displaced by defiance 
and a consciousness of superior power. Not only are 
many of the provincial papers in quality and impor- 
tance equal to any Paris paper, but the Paris papers, 
to have any chance of competing with them, have to 
cater for provincial readers, who, reading only one 
paper as a rule, expect a better quality of matter and 
production than the Parisian, who carelessly looks 
through half a dozen. This, while it has raised the 
quality of the Paris Press, has forced it to become 
more objective and impersonal. 

In the seventies the newspaper was essentially the 
organ or the medium through which some man or 

293 



THIRTY YEARS 

group of men endeavoured to influence the public. 
It was for opinions rather than for news that the 
Parisian read his paper. The Temps was an anony- 
mous innovation and has remained so. Founded 
by Protestant Alsatians during the second Empire as 
an organ of French Liberalism, it has never changed 
its character of a sober critic of events till of late it 
has shown a rather militant disposition in international 
matters. One of the earlier caricaturists of the Figaro 
once started a type in the " lecteur du Temps" a man 
who pushes up his spectacles and reads the paper with 
the intensity of a student, indifferent to the jocularity 
or beauty of his neighbours. The reader of the Figaro 
was, of course, a very different and more attractive 
person. 

I remember an attempt in the eighties to bring out 
a paper on English lines. It was called the Globe, and 
ran to some ten or twelve pages. Never was there 
a more ghastly failure. Writers and readers alike 
were out of their element, and before a fortnight 
elapsed it gave up the ghost. 



The first departure in the transformation of the 
Paris Press to its present manner was an English 
paper called the Morning News, which was brought 
out by that eccentric Anglo-Frenchman, Alfred 
Edwards, who recently died, and who is perhaps 
better known to the general public as the husband 
of Mile. Lanthelme, the actress, who was drowned 
while yachting with her husband on the Rhine than 
on account of newspaper ventures. Alongside it he 
brought out a French edition of the same paper called 
Le Matin. The English version was dropped, but 

294 



PAST AND PRESENT EFFORTS 

Le Matin still flourishes as a lively anonymous paper 
without any policy or any political bias. Its object 
was to give news expeditiously and, above all, to be 
interesting. I believe it was also the first French 
paper to pay large sums for exhaustive telegrams. 
Through Blowitz, later on, the Matin arranged to have 
access in London to The Times foreign correspondence 
as it arrived, and Blowitz's adoptive son, M. Stephane 
Lauzanne, was the first London correspondent of the 
Matin under the new regime. Another paper, the 
Echo de Paris, has now a similar arrangement with 
the Daily Telegraph. 

If important French papers have become tributary 
to the London Press, the French papers have more 
recently set the British Press an example in appointing 
foreign editors, who, instead of merely editing the 
telegrams from abroad, explain them and keep the 
reader informed of the progress of pending questions 
and of the import of incidents as they arise. The 
Echo de Paris has the services for this purpose of a 
distinguished writer and traveller, M. Jean Herbette, 
who belongs to a French diplomatic family, and the 
Petit Parisien those of M. Cheradame, whose books on 
Eastern questions are well known to every student of 
diplomacy. The Temps has not yet followed the 
examples of its younger rivals, but it has the services 
of a distinguished publicist, M. Tardieu, whose works 
on international affairs are as well known as those 
of anyone, and the same may be said of M. de Caix, 
who gives the Debats the benefit of his world-wide 
experience. These able writers correspond in France 
to well-informed writers in this country, such as 
Mr. Lucien Wolf, Dr. Dillon, Mr. Wickham Steed, 
Professor Spencer Wilkinson, Mr.^J.^A. Spender. Mr. 

295 



THIRTY YEARS 

W. P. Crozier, Mr. Herbert White, Mr. J. S. R. 
Phillips, and many others. 

at; jt. jfc jfe jfc 

In the provinces the morning paper has been dis- 
placed by the evening edition. Hence the Petit Havre, 
Petit Marseillais, Petite Gironde, originally issued, like 
the Petit Temps, as evening supplements, have now 
become the main editions, the morning editions merely 
adding the night's telegrams. In Paris the papers 
which are issued in the evening are dated the following 
day for the purpose of their provincial circulation, but 
all the serious papers, except the Temps and the Debats 
(which, after having been a morning paper, followed 
its example), are morning papers, and the Parisian 
who used to be in no hurry to hear the world's news 
is now as keen as the Londoner to read the night's 

telegrams with his petit dejeuner. 

* # # * * 

In 1 88 1 when, as The Times correspondent, I 
travelled with Gambetta on his Norman tours, an 
incident occurred which illustrates the then enormous 
difference between the Press of London and that of 
Paris. After one of his most important speeches, 
there was a stampede to the telegraph office. I had 
walked to it quietly on a principle which I have 
generally throughout life found useful, that if you 
cannot be first, there is no need to hurry. At the 
office the clerks were turning away the reporters to 
count their words. I guessed the number of mine and 
wrote it at the top. Mine was sent off first, and the 
Paris papers the next morning gave a telegraphic 
summary of The Times leader on the speech, before 
the Paris papers had yet published the speech itself. 

The Temps correspondent, who had sent his report 

296 



PAST AND PRESENT EFFORTS 

by post and who had nothing to gain by learning my 
methods, asked me how I had counted the words so 
quickly. When I told him I had guessed the number 
he was aghast. " Why," he said, " in France they 
count every word, and the reporter would have to 
pay the difference out of his own pocket if he made a 
mistake." But that was thirty years ago ! 
* # # # # 

The question of an entente with Germany I have 
discussed in another chapter, and no one is keener 
than I on seeing it achieved, but, while we are working 
to bring it about, we must not lose sight of the fact 
that the entente is of too recent an origin to be allowed 
to drift. Nor can it be left with impunity to the 
tender mercies of politicians who are not familiar 
with the history of Anglo-French relations. Men 
who have passed their lives in politics seem to lose 
the sense of proportion. Noisy trifles of an accidental 
character which crop up in the course of party strife 
tend to elbow aside grave and silent issues on which 
the destiny of whole nations may depend. To realise 
the value to England of the good understanding with 
France, one must have had personal experience such 
as I have endeavoured in this volume to relate, or 
detailed secondhand knowledge, of the danger passed. 
Unless he does, he will not understand why nothing 
must be done to jeopardise it or appreciate the efforts 
made to strengthen it, for not to strengthen it is to 
let it drift, and if it is allowed to drift it may drift 
away altogether. 

Nothing could more conclusively show how warmly 
the advantages of increasing intercourse are appre- 

297 



THIRTY YEARS 

ciated than the enthusiasm which attended the recent 
visit of the King and Queen to Paris. 

With a view to widening the scope of the friend- 
ship between two peoples and drawing into the move- 
ment even the humblest of their subjects, in 1905 at 
a meeting at Finsbury I proposed the formation of the 
International Brotherhood Alliance, now familiarly 
called the F.I.G. {Fraternitas Inter Gentes), a society 
the purpose of which is the promotion of international 
visits to each other of working men and women. 1 

Being composed of members whose margin of 
income is not large enough to warrant a subscription, 
the society exacts no contribution from its members 
beyond the initial expense of is. 3d. to cover the cost 
of the badge and the certifying card and postage. 
Each branch is independent and self-supporting. The 
late hon. secretary stated that he believed there were 
about 200,000 members. In any case frequent visits 
are exchanged between some of the English and French 
branches, and I may mention more especially the 
branches of Keighley, in Yorkshire, under the active 
patronage of my good friend, Mr. Sam Clough, its late 
mayor, that of Suresnes, of which M. Huillard, its late 
mayor, was and still is one of the guiding spirits, and 
that of Dunkirk, of which M. Rodolphe Lebel, an 
energetic justice of the peace of that city, is the 
president. 

With a view to drawing into the movement another 
class, those inclined to be absorbed exclusively in 
local affairs, in 1906 I started the idea of municipal 

1 On the list after my own name as founder figured that of Mr. John 
Burns, and after his that of Mr. J. Allen Baker, now M.P. for Finsbury, 
whose son, Mr. Allan Baker, accepted the honorary secretaryship, Canon 
Barker, the Rev. Harry Bisseker, Sir John Brunner, and Mr. Braith- 
waite. See p. 377. 

298 



PAST AND PRESENT EFFORTS 

ententes and organised the great visit of the Paris 
Municipal Council to London in the summer of 
that year, and later on, in 1907, the intermunicipal 
visits between Lyons and Manchester, in which 
the corporations of Edinburgh and Glasgow also 
joined. 

Again, to enable Statesmen of the two countries 
to meet and know each other personally, I brought 
about the visit of French Statesmen to London in 
May, 1909, when Sir John Brunner, always ready to 
join in any work for the promotion of international 
friendship, entertained them and all the leading 
members of both Houses of Parliament at dinner at 
the House of Commons. 

As a further development and to bring French and 
English men of letters into closer touch with one 
another, recently in conjunction with French friends I 
promoted the formation in Paris of a Shakespeare com- 
mittee to co-operate in the celebration of the Shake- 
spearean centenary in 1916. At its head, as president 
d'honneur, is Anatole France. As chairman of its 
executive committee it has had the good fortune to 
obtain the services of M. Hanotaux, a statesman who 
showed himself, as Minister of Foreign Affairs, a 
master of organisation, and whose history of con- 
temporary France is the standard work on the subject, 
and as hon. secretary, M. Firmin Roz, whose admirable 
conferences and studies on contemporary French and 
English literature are well known throughout the 
reading world. 

Following out the same idea of fostering Anglo- 
French literary amenities was the invitation of 
Anatole France to London in December, 191 3, when 
a committee was formed for his reception which 

299 



THIRTY YEARS 

equalled if it did not eclipse in brilliancy anything 
of the kind ever got together. 1 

Anatole France is the highest living expression of 
what is permanent in French literature and thought. 
Other Frenchmen of letters may have a manner 
peculiar to them, an originality of ideas and impres- 
sions which is contributing to the general mass in 
each case no small amount of suggestive, thoughtful 
and well expressed matter. Anatole France is not 
merely suggestive, thoughtful, and well expressed. Tn 
him are embodied the permanent traditions of French 
literature. He is the present incarnation of that line 
of literary " silversmiths " of those " ciseleurs 
d'argent," who are the glory of a language insepa- 
rable from literature, in which the very phrases are 
masterpieces of art. Mr. Walkley, the distinguished 
dramatic critic of The Times, at the supper given by 
Sir Herbert Tree in Anatole France's honour in the 
dome over his theatre, said of the master in an 
admirable little speech in admirable French that he 
could not help feeling a strange emotion in the 
presence of a man whose writings were among the 
immortal work of a nation's genius. In this he 
expressed what everyone feels in the presence of this 
brilliant and flexible French mind. To honour 
Anatole France was to honour the country which 
alone could produce such a writer, and this the French 
nation felt. In reply to my invitation he wrote me 
the following characteristic little epistle : — 

" Je sens tout le prix de l'offre si honorable que vous me. 
faites. Ce serait trop d'orgueil de l'accepter, trop de 

1 I must here acknowledge the valuable assistance I had in the 
collaboration of Mr. Robert Dell of Paris, Mr. John Lane, who has 
published a translation into English of Anatole France's works, and 
especially of Mr. Holford Knight who acted as honorary secretary of the 
committee. 

300 



PAST AND PRESENT EFFORTS 

renoncement de la refuser. Decidez vous-meme. J'aime 
PAngleterre et vous prie de croire a mes meilleurs senti- 
ments." 

A translation of the speech he delivered at the 
banquet given in his honour on December II, 1913, 
was given in the newspapers at the time. In its 
original French it was as follows : — 

Je ne sais pas si je reve ! Mais, accueilli avec une splendide 
bienveillance par tant d'hommes qui representent tant de 
belles pensees, tant de beaux actes, tant de beaux ouvrages, 
il me semble que mon aventure est celle de ce crocheteur d'un 
vieux conte francais, ce crocheteur qui, drape dans une etoffe 
de Baghdad, croyait qu'il etait devenu l'Empereur de la Chine 
et qu'il etait aime de la princesse de Chine ! Mais je n'ai 
aucun desir de me reveiller, et je me demande quel demon de 
la nuit, quelle fee, aurait pu me dieter le si beau, et pour moi 
si touchant discours que je viens d'entendre. A une eloquence 
si vive et, malgre ce qu'elle a de trop flatteur pour moi, je dirai 
si sincere, je ne puis malheureusement vous repondre que par 
une eloquence de papier — e'est a dire la plus detestable des 
eloquences. 

Vous m'excuserez, en consideration des choses considerables 
que j'ai a dire, puisque je parlerai de PAngleterre et de vous. 
Le discours de Lord Redesdale m'a tres emu, parce qu'il m'a 
rappele ces vieilles mceurs de la vieille Angleterre, de cette 
vieille aristocratie qui avait une si belle culture intellectuelle, 
qui, au temps de Fox et de Pitt faisait retentir le Parlement 
de citations de Virgile. On pourrait faire un livre entier des 
citations de Virgile au Parlement d' Angleterre ! Je ne suis 
meme pas sur que ce livre n'ait ete deja fait. 

Mais Lord Redesdale etait bien qualifie pour parler du 
roman. Je passe de son discours tout ce qu'il a pu dire de 
moi. J'en retiens ce qu'il a dit du roman anglais, car, je le 
repete, comme lettre et comme Anglais, comme l'auteur de 
ces beaux recits sur le Japon, il est qualifie pour parler du 
roman, la forme intime et moderne du poeme epique. II vous 
a revele le Japon, et e'est lui qui a fait en Europe la gloire de 
ce pays lointain. C'est lui qui en a fait connaitre la litterature, 
dans un livre qui reste classique. 

Vous avez done pu parler du roman avec autorite, parce 
que vous etes un ecrivain et parce que vous etes un Anglais. 

301 



THIRTY YEARS 

Vos compatriotes, durant deux siecles, ont donne des chefs 
d'ceuvre de ce genre. Est-il besoin de rappeler Richardson 
et Fielding. Swift et Daniel Defoe, Walter Scott, Dickens, 
Thackeray, George Eliot ? Je m'arrete, pour ne pas faire 
aux vivants une apotheose anticipee. Le roman est en 
Angleterre dans son sol de predilection, comme la pomme en 
Normandie et l'orange a Valence. 

Pourquoi ? II faut pour le dire un gros volume ou un seul 
mot. Eh bien, disons-le en un seul mot. Ce mot, Lord 
Redesdale nous l'a fait pressentir ; c'est que le roman est 
intime, cordial, familier, par nature, et que 1' Anglais a l'esprit 
familier, intime, et cordial. 

Decidement, je ne reve pas ! C'est un banquet ! Et je 
vois briller les verres et les visages bienveillants des convives. 
Et j 'arrive a comprendre pourquoi vous m'y avez convie. 
Je suis pour vous un symbole, une allegoric Je represente a 
cette table les lettres francaises, comme, aux fetes de la 
Revolution francaise, la citoyenne Momore representait la 
deesse Raison sans etre deesse ni specialement raisonnable. 

Cette idee me met a l'aise, et je ne vous chicanerai pas trop 
sur le choix de votre symbole. Je me dis que peut etre il ne 
vous a pas deplu de faire asseoir a votre table un Francais 
qui a la faiblesse d'ecrire (" seul le silence est grand," a dit un 
poete philosophe) et d'aimer le merite, que vous estimez fort, 
de ne jamais deguiser sa pensee. 

II y a dans ce genie anglais, dont vous avez recu le flambeau 
et le tendez tout ardent a la generation future, une continuite 
de choses fortes qui etonne et qui force l'admiration. Par 
sa gravite, unie a une parfaite bonhomie, par l'heureux 
melange d'idealisme sublime et de realisme qui le composent, 
par son patient effort pour la justice, par son energie virile 
et sa Constance vertueuse, on peut dire qu'il est un perpetuel 
hommage a la liberte et a la dignite humaines. II a conquis 
l'estime du monde entier et ne fut nulle part mieux compris ni 
mieux estime qu'en France. Vos institutions, vos mceurs 
publiques servirent d'exemple et d'ideal a la France du i8me 
siecle, a la France de Montesquieu et de Voltaire — et cella-la 
est la grande, la vraie. Votre Shakespeare a renouvele notre 
inspiration poetique. Notre regime parlementaire est sorti 
du votre — et c'est ne pas votre faute si nous ne le pratiquons 
pas toujours de maniere parfaite. 

Je vois ici, et c'est votre honneur et le mien, des homines 
qui different grandement entre eux en croyances, en senti- 
ments, et en idees, mais qui ont en commun la droiture, 

302 



PAST AND PRESENT EFFORTS 

l'energie, cette robustesse britannique qui leur donnent un 
air de famille et les tiennent unis par des liens tres forts. 
Tout est energie en vous, l'esprit et le caractere. Ce n'est pas 
par hasard que les ecrivains anglais comme Thomas de 
Quincey ont bien parle du peuple romain ; ce n'est pas par 
hasard que Kipling a ecrit de belles pages sur la Rome 
Imperiale ; c'est parce qu'il y a quelque parente entre la genie 
de Rome et le genie anglais. Le peuple romain aimait la 
justice et pensait etablir des lois equitables et une paix 
auguste sur la terre conquise. 

II ne s'agit plus de conquerir le monde, mais de le pacifier. 
Travaillez, travaillons de concert a la paix du monde. En 
parlant ainsi, je ne crois pas etre sorti du cadre des propos 
de table : cette table est grande comme le monde ! 

Ce banquet etait encore dans le chaos original quand Sir 
Thomas Barclay, President du Comite d'Organisation, 
a souffle sur ce chaos son esprit d'amitie pour la France et 
d' entente pour la paix du monde ; encourage par ce noble 
ami de la France, dont le nom est egalement illustre et cher 
des deux cotes du Detroit, j'acclame en terminant Pamitie de 
l'Angleterre et de la France en vue de la paix universelle. 
***** 

It is by this constant cultivation of the spirit of 
friendship between the two countries that it will be 
made to sink into the souls of the two nations. 



Excellent work in the same direction has been done 
by the "Entente Cordiale Society" with which the 
names of my late friend W. H. Sands and that of his 
sympathetic and indefatigable widow are identified. 
Under the chairmanship of Mr. Barton Kent it shows 
an activity in London which compares well with the 
excellent work which is being done in Scotland by 
the Franco-Scottish Society. It was founded by 
Sir Roper Parkington about the same time as the 
Franco-Scottish Society. 

Nor should I forget to mention the English branches 
of the Alliance Francaise under the chairmanship of 

3°3 



THIRTY YEARS 

Professor Salmon of Reading, that energetic institu- 
tion which fulfils so admirably its task of promoting 
French intellectual influence throughout the world, 
nor that offshoot of the Alliance, the Franco-British 
Alliance for the reciprocal promotion of a similar 
influence, founded by Mile. Irma Dreyfus who in 
Paris manages to keep up a constant round of 
interesting Anglo-French social functions. 

All these undertakings deserve well of the two 
countries. That they prosper without official en- 
couragement shows that private initiative has not 
yet been entirely " legislated " or " administrated " 
out of us either in France or in England. 



3°4 



CHAPTER XXVI 



STUMBLING BLOCKS 



With peace propagandas of all kinds I have always 
had the strongest sympathy, and I sincerely admire 
the devoted perseverance with which, in spite of 
ridicule and malicious misrepresentation, the pacifists 
have succeeded in gradually achieving a respectful 
hearing by the " powers-that-be." There are, no 
doubt, truly ridiculous persons. For instance, I 
remember a member of the House of Representatives 
at an Anglo-American Arbitration meeting at Wash- 
ington delivering a spirited oration on the abolition 
of war by the abolition of monarchical government in 
which he enunciated his scheme as a brilliant thought 
which would enlighten the world and have to be 
followed because it was the only solution of a practical 
character ! I inquired who this oracular and eloquent 
politician was and learnt that he was a journeyman 
printer by trade, saturated with the self-regeneration 
literature then current in the United States. 

Although I am a man of peace and regard 
peace as the consequence of all sensible diplomacy 
and statecraft, I do not see it in the light of an 
object per se. It has as many phases as human 
character, purposes, and circumstances. There 
is peace which is almost as bad as war — peace 
which is worse than war, peace which is virtual war. 
When war exists, the object of the combatants is to 
t.y. 305 X 



THIRTY YEARS 

force each other to accept peace on acceptable con- 
ditions, when war is threatened the object of diplomacy 
is to preserve peace by the negotiation of acceptable 
conditions, but when peace is spoken of in the abstract 
as an object per se, it has no more sense than to speak 
of war as an object per se. We must assume that war 
in all cases can be referred to causes which can be 
formulated. It is, therefore, essentially to the ex- 
amination and removal of the causes of war, to the 
adoption as between States of methods of diplomacy 
enabling them to settle difficulties by negotiation, 
and, when negotiation fails, by judicial adjustment, 
that a peace movement should direct public attention. 
To show that war is contrary to progress because 
it kills off the more fit or that it is a barbarous and 
revolting method of adjusting differences, however 
convincing the arguments may be, is only proving 
what public opinion in civilised countries admits or 
more or less admits already. And all the arguments 
against war have never advanced the solution of the 
difficulties which are a menace to peace. Nor have 
they ever influenced peoples in their attitude towards 
a war. In the course of the Turco-Italian war even 
Italian pacifists, including Signor Moneta, one of the 
laureates of the Nobel Peace Prize, professed their 
approval of a war which was a violation not only of 
treaty obligations, but one in which the Turks were 
not even given a chance of peaceful settlement. 

Nor do books showing that peace commercially or 
financially is a good thing and war a bad thing get 
to the root of the evil. Nobody would dare at the 
present day to contend that war from that point of 
view is a good speculation. If anybody could prove 

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STUMBLING BLOCKS 

that the building of warships or field artillery was a 
loss to those who actually built them, or that large 
contracts for war material were generally ruinous to 
those who obtained them, or that military or naval 
promotion impoverished those who were promoted, 
war would suffer a truly severe check. These are the 
interests which benefit by war and preparation for it. 
There is nothing to prevent German and British ship- 
building interests from holding shares in each other's 
concerns. War between this country and Germany 
might therefore enrich the British shareholders in the 
German concerns and German shareholders in the 
British concerns. This is the contrary thesis to that 
of my friend, Norman Angell. On neither side do the 
interested parties want war — of that I feel sure — 
but if orders for war material fell off, men would be 
thrown out of work, expensive plant would stand 
idle, and the dividends of the respective shareholders 
would shrink. War panics are profitable to these 
highly syndicated interests, and all the arguments 
against war based on the principle that general 
interests benefit by peace do not attack the evil of 
war-scaremongering at its real source. 

The only effective method of attacking the evil 
seems, I repeat, to be elimination of the causes of war. 

To take a concrete instance : any attempt at the 
present time to create a war scare between Great 
Britain and France would be doomed to failure. 
Plausibility, which is essential to the manufacture of 
a scare, does not exist in this case. There is no 
alliance between these two countries, but there is a 
strong feeling of sympathy and appreciation between 
them, with which the supposition that either con- 

307 x 2 



THIRTY YEARS 

templated a hostile attitude against the other is 
incompatible. 

If similar good feeling could be brought into existence 
between Great Britain and Germany, 1 scaremongers 
would have to rely on Russo-German artifices, for then, 
as between Germany and France, an era might begin 
in which there would be no reason for disturbing the 
political status qud of Europe, or the expansion of that 
work of civilised co-operation which has been making 
steady though unobtrusive progress for many years, 
co-operation not only in many public services such as 
posts, telegraphs, telephones, wireless telegraphy, sub- 
marine cables, but in the neutralisation of waterways, 
such as the Suez Canal, the Congo and Niger basins, 
the international protection of the common interest 
in patent rights, trade-marks and copyright, the pro- 
tection in the general interest of human health and 
morality, the assimilation, for the common benefit of 
mankind, of international and even private law, etc. — 
all steps for establishing law and order among nations. 

We are, nevertheless, told that war as the law of 
nature is necessary to man's development. If it is 
so, it is natural that men should wish to kill each other, 
the destruction of the fittest is what is ordained 
by the destiny of man, and the survival of the 
lame, the halt and the blind — that is, the survival of 
the unfittest — a decree of Providence ! 



" Si vis pacem para helium." This maxim is always 

1 Sir Max Waechter, in a masterly article in the Fortnightly Review, 
May, 19 13, has dealt with the problem of Anglo-German rivalry, and if 
his more general scheme does nothing more than bring the two countries 
in question into closer association, he will have deserved more than well 
from both, 

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STUMBLING BLOCKS 

quoted by the panic-mongers as a conclusive 
argument against the advocates of peace. It is 
no doubt true that to be unprepared for war is 
to expose a country to a casus belli on the part 
of a neighbour, if that neighbour has a grievance to 
right or a territorial craving to satisfy. Unfortunately 
a perfectly sensible maxim has been construed as 
meaning that a State to be safe must excite the alarm 
of its neighbours by proclaiming its determination to 
outvie them in armaments, and in practice this con- 
struction has resulted in a wild race to surpass each 
other in advantages for attack. How can advantages 
for attack which are met by a corresponding counter- 
development of the forces of resistance assure peace ? 
They can only result in a parallel increase of arma- 
ments, which leaves the relative position of the parties 
unchanged. We are told that it would be quixotic 
for any nation to curtail any disproportionate ability 
it may possess to assail its neighbours. These, how- 
ever, in turn combine, and again oblige it to increase its 
strength for the purposes of possible defence. And 
thus competition in armaments and combinations con- 
tinues in a vicious circle of response to realities of self- 
preservation. When any proposal is made to set the 
example of relaxing speed in this mad career, there is 
an outcry of national danger, and yet, if no nation 
pulls up, there is no reason why the increase of 
armaments should not go on ad infinitum. What 
reason is there for supposing that, just as States 
increase their armaments to preserve the balance 
between them, they would not diminish them if the 
proportion remained unchanged ? At any rate, an 
experiment might be tried on such a scale as would 
not endanger the national defences. This was the 

309 



THIRTY YEARS 

suggestion recently made by a British Cabinet 
Minister, and I do not see in what respect it showed 
any indifference to the safety of these islands and a 
misconception of any difficulties affecting the national 
interests as such. 

A common mistake is to confuse the desire for 
the preservation of good feeling which may exist 
between two countries with willingness to subordinate 
primal interests of the one to primal interests of the 
other. This is a most dangerous and misleading 
mistake. Two nations can be in close sympathy, as 
two individuals can be in close sympathy, with one 
another ; they can be ready at all times to work 
together in their common interest, to exercise forbear- 
ance and self-restraint over any unpleasant incident 
which might otherwise cause irritation, to act the part 
of a friend, and do all that can be expected of a friend 
in an emergency, without being pledged to join one 
another in matters affecting third parties or which 
one but not the other may regard as of supreme 
importance. 

It is quite enough an asset in the economy of peoples 
to be on such friendly terms with any other people that 
when any incident occurs between them no element of 
public irritation complicates the question and em- 
barrasses the Governments in their handling of it. 
This obviously applies in a greater degree to States 
governed, like Great Britain, the United States and 
France, on the elective principle than to autocratic 
States, and with the widening influence of democracy 
the value of this asset is increasing. 

A few years ago the unfortunate incident, which 
has arisen in reference to the Panama Canal, 

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STUMBLING BLOCKS 

might have become acute and aroused a great 
deal of public feeling on both sides of the Atlantic. 
As things are, the public on both sides are perfectly 
confident that the incident will be dealt with by 
the two Governments on merits and in that spirit of 
courteous consideration for each other's difficulties 

which attends discussion between friends. 

****** 

Lord Rosebery, in his famous speech at Stourbridge 
on October 25, 1905, speaking on the Anglo-French 
and Anglo-German relations, stated the position very 
clearly : — 

" A warm and friendly understanding with France," he 
said, " whatever you may think of the particular instrument 
which began it, is an incalculable gain to both countries ; 
and I only wish that it was not considered necessary to 
associate a friendship with our ancient rival with so bitter 
an animosity to another great country with which we should 
have no real cause of dispute. I need not say that I allude 
to Germany. I cannot understand why friendship with 
France should involve such violent polemics with Germany as 
now rage between the two countries, and which I do not believe 
represent the real feeling of the two nations, though they may 
represent the feelings of some or all their Governments — of 
that I know nothing ; but I do view these polemics as a 
serious danger to peace, as poisonously influencing the two 
nations and the growing generations of the two nations ; 
and therefore I am one of those who deprecate most sincerely 
the view which appears to prevail in some quarters, that 
cordial relations with France mean irreconcilable animosity 
to Germany." 



Nor was Lord Lansdowne's idea, judging by a letter 
he wrote me at the time, other than that the Anglo- 
French entente should be the precursor of others to 
follow. On my sending him a memorandum on my 
American campaign and congratulating him on the 

3 11 



THIRTY YEARS 

success of his Anglo-French settlement of May 4, 1904, 
he replied : — 

Foreign Office, May 8, 1904. 

" Dear Mr. Barclay,— I am much obliged to you for 
sending me the Anglo-American Treaty paper which I am 
glad to have by me. 

Pray accept my best thanks for your kind words of con- 
gratulation in regard to our understanding with France. The 
manner in which the Agreement has been received in both 
countries is certainly very satisfactory and is most encouraging 
to those of us who are anxious to see all matters which might 
give rise to controversy between ourselves and other nations 
happily settled. — Yours sincerely, Lansdowne." 

" What a mistake you made," said an eminent 
French politician, who was my neighbour at a dinner- 
table some months ago, " in not preventing the dis- 
memberment of France in 1871." An English poli- 
tician on my other side observed that it was Queen 
Victoria who prevented us from exercising any 
influence in favour of France, her sympathies having 
been throughout strongly in favour of the adopted 
country of her daughter, the Prussian Crown Princess. 
Besides, she regarded France as the aggressor. 

Challenged to say how Great Britain could have 
exercised any influence, my French neighbour hazarded 
the suggestion that at the close of the war Germany 
would no more have risked the hostility of England in 
1871 than she did in 191 1, and that England would 
not have had to back up her influence by force. 

I have often heard this view expressed, but it is 
based on the assumption that England would have 
been able to exercise the same pressure as she was 
able to exercise forty years later, when a naval war 
would have had some sort of terror for a country 
which has an enormous and growing overseas trade 

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STUMBLING BLOCKS 

on which it depends for its industrial prosperity and 
for revenue corresponding to that prosperity. In 
1 871 the stoppage of German overseas trade would 
not have been a matter of critical importance to 
Germany, and the 100,000 men we could have placed 
at the assistance of France would obviously not have 
had the same effect after all the French armies had 
been defeated as they might have had in preventing 
a war. Moreover, nobody at the outset dreamt that 
France was the weaker Power. To the bulk of 
Englishmen the war appeared to have been wantonly 
and on the flimsiest of grounds forced on Germany. 
France was beaten, and the genuine sympathy there 
was for France was on account of the huge proportions 
of the indemnity exacted, and not at all on account 
of the claim to Alsace-Lorraine, which in the same 
way had been taken by France from Germany and 
had never ceased to be a German-speaking land. The 
part of Lorraine which was included in the annexation 
only appeared as a fragment to cover the fortress of 
Metz, which on the map seemed necessary to the safety 
of the annexed territory. Germany was the winner, 
and as such seemed entitled to secure her new 
frontier. No doubt it would have been wiser to 
neutralise a zone of territory between the two 
countries, and though this may still be a solution 
some day, the idea of a neutral zone at the time 
appears to have occurred to nobody. 

Napoleon III., as a fact, never counted on England. 
Nor did his ministers. M. Emile Ollivier, in an article 
in the Revue des Deux Mondes, " La Disillusion diplo- 
matique," relates that France counted on the assistance 
of Austria, to whom the war afforded a chance of 
retrieving her place in Central Europe, and of Italy, 

313 



THIRTY YEARS 

who owed France a return for her assistance in the 
creation of a unified Italy. France had forgotten 
that both had grievances against her, for in that war 
France had dismembered Austria in favour of Italy 
and Italy in favour of herself, another fact which was 
present to the minds of Englishmen, who could not 
see why what was right when she won should be wrong 
when she lost. 



At dinner at an Alsatian friend's house some years 
ago I sat next an old Alsatian Roman Catholic priest. 
By the way, I may mention that my friend was a 
Protestant Alsatian and that he was and is a 
friend and supporter of the well-known French 
Pastor Wagner. We spoke about the feeling in 
Alsace, and he told me it was very difficult to say 
what the true feeling was. This, however, he thought 
might be taken for granted : nobody in Alsace 
wanted the problems of its political status to be solved 
by war. Every Alsatian was sensible enough to see 
that to reunite Alsace to France, as the result of a 
French victory over Germany, would only move the 
spirit of revanche from one side of the Rhine to the 
other. Alsatians were not unhappy under the French 
regime, with all its faults — one of which was that under 
Napoleon III. Alsace had been as much subject to the 
French " foreigner " who did not understand their 
language as to the German " foreigner " ? now who does 
not understand their feelings. The cast-iron Polizei- 
V erordnungen of the German regime the Alsatians, 
however, find it very hard to bear. But, he added, 
the cast-iron method was necessary at first. Under 
the French the reins of government had got out of 

3H 



STUMBLING BLOCKS 

hand, and at Mulhouse the rowdyism of the " young 
bloods " had become scandalous. The Germans soon 
put an end to it, and military discipline quenched 
their super-abundant high spirits with ruthless 
severity. " Na," he wound up, " es ist ja nix 
volkommen in der Welt. Die Franzosen sind ei' 
gutes aber narrisches Volk. Die Deutschen meinen 
es auch gut. Ein bischen narrischer konnten 
sie sein." ("Aye, there is no perfection in the 
world. The French are good folk, though a bit 
crazy. The Germans mean well, but might be a bit 
crazier.") 



In an Australian matter I had to advise upon at the 
beginning of the present century, I had an opportunity 
of hearing the views of an Alsatian for whom I was 
acting. His firm had its factory in Alsace and a 
large place of business in the Quartier du Sentier in 
Paris. The French and German consuls were vying 
with each other to help him in the Australian city 
where the trouble had arisen. He had served as a 
volunteer in one of Gambetta's improvised armies 
and was still a Frenchman, and in his family in Alsace 
kept alive the French tradition, but, he added, that 
did not mean that Alsace cherished any desire to be 
the subject-matter (Venjeii) of a war. Alsace had 
never been so prosperous as she had become. She had 
a larger and expanding market for her goods, and 
practically no competition in Germany, and abroad 
in neutral markets the German Empire was not a 
bad trade-mark. 

" Then, if there were a referendum, would Alsace 
vote for re-annexation to France ? " 

315 



THIRTY YEARS 

" Monsieur," he answered, " Vous me posez une 
question bien cruelle ! " 



I remember once at lunch M. Grevy discussing a 
matter of internal policy on which it was desirable 
that two leading men should agree and whose dis- 
agreement was a source of embarrassment in the 
Republican party. 

" Que conseillez vous, Monsieur le President ? " 
asked a perplexed statesman. 

" Les faire causer." 

" Mais ils ne s'entendraient jamais ? " 

" C'est une bonne chose meme de constater pour- 
quoi." 

It was very wise advice and a coalition followed. 

I often wonder whether, if on the same wise plan 
four wise Frenchmen and four wise Germans met and 
talked over Franco-German relations the result would 
be entirely negative, lis ne s'entendraient fas, no 
doubt, and yet they might constater pourquoi. 

Suppose they met in London as the guests of Lord 
Rosebery, one of the wise men of this country and an 
independent one. Suppose they did not agree, but 
Lord Rosebery, in the abundance of his wisdom, 
suggested that they tried again six months or so later, 
and that this time they added a few more men to the 
council, and if they could not come to a conclusion 
they adjourned again and tried a third time, no 
results to be made known, no banquets to be given in 
their honour, no histrionic mise-en-scene to encourage 
interest or criticism ! 

" A pretty dream ! " as Count Moltke said of trying 
to make wars less necessary, but it is not psycho- 

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STUMBLING BLOCKS 

logically wrong, if there be any truth in the adage 

about forteresse qui parle, femme qui ecoute ! 

* * * * * 

England, it seems to me, is at present in such a 
position that she might play the part between France 
and Germany that France has played between 
England and Russia. Her place in contemporary 
diplomacy as the friend of both is unique. May 
God give her the statesmen capable of fulfilling the 
noblest mission which has ever come within the 
scope of her destiny. 



3*7 



CHAPTER XXVII 



AFTERWORDS 



One night in October, 1909, in the lift ascending 
to my room at the National Liberal Club, I met 
Mr. Gulland, M.P., now the Scottish Whip. Gulland 
and I had raided the Edinburgh schools together a 
couple of years before. We were both educationists, 
as all true Scots are. He asked me where I was 
going to stand as if it were a foregone conclusion 
that I should be a candidate somewhere. As I was 
not, he asked me whether he might speak to the 
Whips on the subject. The next day I had a 
letter from Mr. Pease, the Chief Liberal Whip, 
who told me that the Blackburn Liberals wanted a 
Liberal candidate to wrest the seat from the Con- 
servatives. It is a double-barrelled constituency, which 
had been represented by Sir H. Hornsby, who was 
retiring, and Mr. Philip Snowden, who represented it 
as Labour member. A deputation, headed by my 
now good friend, Alderman Hamer, came to see me 
in London, and I went down to Blackburn and was 
adopted. I had a vague idea that my knowledge of 
British international trade relations and foreign policy 
might be useful, being, in a sense, unique, and I had 
chosen a Lancashire division, though the chances in a 
general way were not as great as in some other possible 
constituencies. But I had had some experience of 
Blackburn men. A couple of years before over a 
hundred of its citizens under the guidance of the Rev. 

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AFTERWORDS 

Fred. Hibbert, a leading Congregationalist minister, 
an eloquent man of many parts, had visited Paris, 
where I had arranged some functions for them. As 
president of the International Brotherhood Alliance I 
presented them, as I had done in the case of a number 
of such visits which had taken place under the patron- 
age of the Alliance, to the president and council of the 
Corporation of Paris at the Hotel de Ville, an event of 
which I found they had retained a lively recollection. 
I was elected by a majority of nearly 3,000 and at 
the head of the poll, the largest win from the other 
side of the whole election. I shall never forget the 
cheer that went up in the market-place when the 
second letter of my name appeared on the screen (there 
was another B among the candidates). For thirty 
years no Liberal had sat for Blackburn. Nor shall I 
ever forget crossing the seething and cheering masses 
on the shoulders of a huge police officer who elbowed 
his way through them, nor the hugs of my ladies' com- 
mittee, who had worked as only " Lancashire lasses " 
can. It was a wonderful result exceeding all expec- 
tations, but it would be ungracious not to acknowledge 
that it was due to the energy, skill and perseverance 
of my committees, both male and female. On the 
central committee, Alderman Hamer, J. P., its chair- 
man, a shrewd and eloquent speaker, was ably seconded 
by Mr. J. W. Marsden, its hon. secretary, Mr. Riley, 
the Liberal Agent, Mr. Ritzema and Mr. E. Cooper, 
and Mr. James Kay, who attributed some of my 
success to my " courteous French manner," that is. the 
deference I paid to my opponents and the absence from 
my speeches of any abuse of the views entertained by 
the other side, which, however, I fear is not specifically 
French. Only, as both Lord Robert Cecil and Mr, 

319 



THIRTY YEARS 

Stewart Bowles, my defeated opponents, were equally 
courteous and the election throughout was conducted 
in the friendly spirit of sportsmen as befitted the 
home of the " Blackburn Rovers," the Liberal victory 

must be attributed to " merits " all round ! 

# # # * * 

In the House of Commons there was nothing for me 
to do that any other member could not do just as well. 
The subject in which I was skilled, British foreign 
commercial and political relations, was not a Party 
matter, and interest in non-Party matters is not only 
discouraged but resented by disciplinarians of the 
front benches. I have no vocation for idle servitude. 
Not that I disagreed from any of the Liberal 
policy. My votes were all in accordance with 
my conscience, and I only once abstained from 
voting with the party, when on one occasion 
it sided against the Labour members on the question 
of Female Suffrage. This subject I do not regard 
as one on which Liberals have any right to demur. 
If there is any principle which is at the root of 
Liberalism it is respect for the national liberties 
and the extension of the franchise to all citizens who 
contribute to the nation's work and expenditure. To 
exclude women on the ground that men are in the 
minority is a monstrous perversion of the sense of 
Liberalism, or because they have not had experience 
of politics, which they can only get after they are in 
possession of the vote, is not worthy of British com- 
mon sense. At Blackburn my experience of the 
political women-workers was that they were not only 
perfectly able to deal with political questions, but 
first-rate organisers. Mrs. Cooper, who presided at 
many of my meetings, showed herself a thoughtful, 

320 



AFTERWORDS 

business-like woman who takes the trouble to under- 
stand the subjects she deals with before she speaks 
upon them. Of Mrs. Snowden, the wife of my fellow- 
member for Blackburn, I can say the same, as 
I can say it of many other women with whom I 
have been brought in contact at Blackburn and 
elsewhere in connection with the suffrage question. 

The Parliament of January, 1910, lasted barely a 
year. I did not stand again, but I made many friends 
in my constituency, and on sending in March, 191 2, a 
copy of my book on the " Turco-Italian War and its 
Problems " to Alderman Hamer, still the chairman 
of the Liberal Committee, I received the following 
letter, which showed me that the feeling left by our 
political association was as warm as ever : — 

" My dear Sir Thomas Barclay, — Warmest thanks for the 
book just received. It is most kind of you to remember me 
in this way and remind me of a friendship formed between 
us under circumstances and conditions which must ever 
remain of much interest to both of us and a friendship which 
I hope and which I feel will last during the remainder of our 
lives. I shall read the book with much interest, not only for 
its merits, but because of its author, who I am certain is 
capable of doing justice to the subject which it deals with. 
We are living in stirring times, and it will need all the best men 
in the country can do to guide the good old ship from drifting 
on the rocks and becoming a wreck. In the midst of it all, 
I am sure, Sir Thomas Barclay will play a useful part in bring- 
ing it safely into port. With every good wish to youself and 
Lady Barclay, in which my dear wife joins, — I am, Yours 
sincerely, Edwin Hamer." 



My experience in Parliament, though short, afforded 
me many points of comparison with my outside but 
nevertheless not inconsiderable experience of French 
parliamentary practice, and I must say the resem- 

T.Y. 321 Y 



THIRTY YEARS 

blances were in some respects quite as surprising as 
the differences were interesting. 

In common they are both frequently misled by too 
exclusive a contact with the capital as to the state of 
public opinion. The members of Parliament who 
form the fighting party forces are mostly men who 
have made a profession of politics and have long been 
in the party service, a service so absorbing that they 
find it difficult to give time to the study of provincial 
conditions and opinion. Their source of information 
is mainly the metropolitan newspapers, which give 
the news they all must know — the news of the capital, 
in which most of them pass their lives and many of 
them earn their livelihood. 

The man who comes into Parliament late in life, 
with but few exceptions, finds himself among men in 
office or in expectation of office who have a familiarity 
with the inner life of Parliament and readiness in 
dealing with questions they have practically created 
or selected which he can never hope to rival. Those 
who have practical knowledge of the national re- 
quirements are dazzled and baffled by these ready- 
tongued specialists in parliamentary methods and 
usage who profess, and even sometimes seem, to 
know more than they do. They find parliamentary 
opinion is worked by experienced wire-pullers, and that 
the ultimate object of the struggle is to win in the 
greatest match of the Empire. The men who play the 
game are as honestly patriotic as those who look on. 
They do their best for their country, honestly believing 
that training in the ways and tactics of Parliament is 
the only method of efficiently helping it. 

The French Government obtains information about 

322 



AFTERWORDS 

provincial opinion in principle through the prefets, 
who represent it as chief executive officers in every 
department (county). As, however, ministries change 
too frequently to entail changes of the seventy-two 
prefets of France, they are far from being a very trust- 
worthy source of information at all times In England 
they would be a much more effective source of 
information, as they are, for instance, in Hungary, 
another highly-developed parliamentary country, 
where they are the direct agents of the Government 
and keep it informed of local feeling on all proposed 
measures. 

A difference between the Parliament of this country 
and that of France is the large contingent of able 
men supplied to the French Parliament and ministries 
by the Press — men who for a few months have charge 
of great departments, sit at cabinet councils, are 
honoured as great officers of State, and who, after this 
interlude of office, go back to their journalistic duties. 
This brings Parliament and Press into close touch. 
New men are constantly stepping in and out, 
carrying progress from outside into the drowsy 
arcana of the ministries, and returning to their 
newspapers with a riper knowledge of facts and 
conditions, which enables them to spread a greater 
spirit of moderation among an impatient democracy. 
The result has been a popular understanding of the 
national interests and requirements at home and 
abroad, especially throughout the provinces, which, I 
venture to think, exists in no other country to the 
same extent. This has worked out in a great dis- 
trust of, and distaste for all " big-stickism," bluff, 
jingoism, militant imperialism, " national expan- 
sion," etc., and in a conviction that the only 

323 y 2 



THIRTY YEARS 

foreign policy of real benefit to the great masses of 
Frenchmen is one of peace and amity with France's 
neighbours, that, in particular, every cause of friction 
between France and Germany must be carefully 
avoided, that war, whether successful or unsuccess- 
ful, is equally prejudicial to popular liberties, and 
that internal development is infinitely more im- 
portant to a democracy than military or diplomatic 
glory. 

Yet nothing is nobler than the uncomplaining readi- 
ness with which the French have accepted the new 
three-years' military service. The gratuitousness of 
the sacrifice makes it all the greater. 



There are no doubt gaps in the story, as I have 
told it, of Anglo-French relations during the thirty 
years I played a part in them, but my story, 
imperfect as it may be, will show how difficult it 
is even for the ablest statesmen and diplomatists 
to foresee not only the lateral influences of their 
policy, but even its direct consequences. The proper 
training of the man who has to assist in the manage- 
ment of the foreign relations of his country has 
become one of the most perplexing problems of 
modern diplomacy. Criticism is often a cheap 
method of self-flattery. Few critics in this country 
have had the responsibility of helmsmen. In France 
it is different, and that the preference in the filling of 
the posts of the French Foreign Office is often for 
men who have not passed their lives at a desk at home 
or been tied to a hierarchic and social routine abroad, 
but have had the wide and rude experience of jour- 
nalism, is perhaps a sign of coming changes. For 

3H 



AFTERWORDS 

" what France does to-day, the rest of the world 
begins to do to-morrow " is almost a truism. 



The entente has brought Englishmen and Frenchmen 
into such closer contact than ever before, that old 
popular delusions about each other are gradually 
disappearing. Not only the old caricature types have 
disappeared from the comic newspapers on both sides 
of the Channel, but even the sturdy old popular 
delusion common among northern peoples, especially 
the English and the Germans, that the French are im- 
moral is dying out. The delusion arose from the con- 
fusion of morality and conventionality. English and 
German conventionality conflicted with a character 
which was straightforward, unconventional, and free 
from that hypocrisy and sham sentiment which shocks 
the French when they first come into closer touch 
with it in other countries. 

But French character, too, has undergone 
change. 

" What," I recently asked a distinguished French 
friend who had spent some time in England and has 
a tendency to admiration for everything English, " do 
you regard as the keynote in English character." He 
had no hesitation — " Frivolity." We are to a French- 
man " a frivolous people " — we who used to apply 
that qualificatif to the French. 

" You do not consider them as serieux as the 
French ? " [In French serieux has a different sense 
from that of the English term " serious" Serious is 
an external, serieux a subjective quality.] 

" No, the English are not serieux." 

" And the French ? " 

325 



THIRTY YEARS 

" They have become so. Misfortune and conscious- 
ness of national responsibility have made them so. 
The second Empire had the benefit of the surviving 
frivolity of a past age. The war of 1870 extinguished 
it, and now the French are the most serieux nation in 
the world." 

So now Englishmen go to France to think and 
Frenchmen come to England to laugh ! 

A commonplace about France is to speak of French 
want of enterprise. Analysed, this amounts to saying 
the French are provident, realistic and non-gambling. 
That they are provident is an axiom. They are 
realistic in the sense that they have a gift for seeing 
things within the range of their vision as they are, 
and a distrust of things beyond its range. And few 
even of those who gamble at the gambling table stake 
more than a trifle of their savings and the gambling 
stops at the table. In business there is little gambling, 
little demand for new markets for the same goods and 
a pious respect for a steady profit, however small. 
And yet it is not accurate to say in general terms that 
the French lack enterprise. They lack the enterprise 
of the Englishman who, manufacturing certain goods, 
is constantly obliged to extend the area of his sales. 
The energy the Englishman expends in extending his 
sales, the Frenchman expends in the creation of 
novelties. His joy (with many exceptions, no doubt) 
is not in seeing his business expand so much as in its 
being unique. To produce the most original design, 
the most beautiful colours, the strongest material, the 
best, whatever it is, of its kind gives the genuine 
Frenchman a happiness for which wealth beyond 
abundant comfort has no equivalent. 

326 



AFTERWORDS 

When left to themselves, the French develop 
naturally in this direction, as I saw some years ago 
at Caudry, near St. Quentin. It was an old market 
town before railways began to change the grouping 
of population and alter the centres of distribution of 
produce. The numerous hostelries which composed 
it ceased to be required by men who could use the 
railway, if even they required to come to market at 
all, and the peasant innkeepers were faced with a 
ruinous fall in the value of their properties. One of 
them who had seen the looms of St. Pierre de Calais 
at work started a " Jacquart," and began to make 
tulle at a time when the frill mania had created a 
demand for it out of proportion to the supply. One 
after another of the innkeepers followed his example, 
and when I visited Caudry in 1885, the town was like 
an American embryonic city. These peasants had 
all become manufacturers. Few if any of them 
could write without great difficulty, and none had any 
notion of book-keeping. A Nottingham man, many 
years ago, had settled at St. Quentin as a manufacturer 
of Nottingham goods. His son, Edwin Cliff, whom 
I knew, became for all practical purposes a French- 
man, President of the Chamber of Commerce, Judge 
of the Tribunal of Commerce, and one of the leading 
citizens of the ancient city. To him the Caudry 
people addressed themselves to get the necessary 
yarn, and a trade in Lancashire yarns grew up in 
St. Quentin. Mr. Barlow, of Messrs. Barlow and 
Jones, of Manchester, and I went to Caudry together 
on business in connection with one of these St. Quentin 
middle-men, who had died and left his accounts in a 
muddled condition, and saw this interesting proof that 
Frenchmen have no lack of enterprise when pressed 

327 



THIRTY YEARS 

by necessity. It was odd to see these rough fellows 
extract from under the mattress a large, bulging, 
weather-beaten envelope containing letters, bank- 
notes, acceptances and slips of paper covered with 
cryptic memoranda of their transactions. They 
wrote few, if any, letters for the very good reason 
I have given, and a man had to be found at St 
Quentin to take the orders and collect payment in 
bank-notes, for such a thing as a cheque was still 
unknown at Caudry. But they were all scrupulously 
honest, and in spite of their primitive methods, 
if mistakes were made, it was not they who made 
them. 



In private money matters the French are honest, 
and though saving (to a fault), and clannish, where the 
greater things of life are concerned, they are a generous, 
honourable, high-minded people. In the course of my 
now many years of active public life in both countries 
I have had opportunities of seeing how Frenchmen 
(with a few exceptions) cordially and gratefully 
acknowledge services rendered to them and disdain 
to deck themselves with borrowed plumes, or take the 
credit of work in which they were mere official 
nominees, or carefully conceal from the public eye the 
real worker or workers. Nor do the French regard a 
man who is not making money or place for himself out 
of the good work he is doing or trying to do as a sort of 
lunatic. In Ibsen's " Enemy of the People " Dr. Stock- 
mann rises immediately in the esteem of his class 
when he is supposed to have revealed the insanitary 
condition of the baths for the purpose of depreciating 
the shares and buying them in cheap. It is not only 

328 



AFTERWORDS 

in Norway that such people are to be found, but they 
truly do not abound in France. 

A French friend, editor of one ot the great French 
reviews, on the other hand, remarked to me one day 
that even in the worst days of anti-English feeling in 
France there was always at the back of every French- 
man's head a deep respect for the " solid " qualities of 
England and Englishmen. They never really thought 
England perfide. They only really thought England 
profoundly and consistently egoistical. Her unswerv- 
ing determination to let no considerations affect certain 
principles in her policy, such as that a man whose feet 
touched British soil or a British ship was free, that 
even a fugitive criminal could only be dealt with 
according to the forms of justice, that aliens and 
British subjects were equal before the law, etc., made 
her a model for all political thinkers and reformers. 
The Englishman's manly vindication of his rights, 
the history of his conquest of political freedom, 
his proud free-trade, his free colonies, the immense 
latitude left to all nationalities within his vast 
empire, his unconscious assumption of superiority, 
his cool and disdainful indifference to danger, the 
manliness of English boys, the love of sport of the 
men, the robust dignity of the women, the distinction 
of British character, its very arrogance, the general 
living up to this character, the unbending assertion 
of British interests as a holy heritage to be handed 
down intact to posterity — all these things have made 
the name of England in France a thing per se. To 
them she owes her prestige throughout the world, 
and all the " Dreadnoughts " of Christendom will not 
give any other Power such a place under the sun as 

329 



THIRTY YEARS 

that which has resulted from the action of the self- 
reliant, bold and honest Englishmen who have carried 
her good name to every spot in the world where a 
cargo can be carried or a warehouse established, or 
hard-working colonists can raise material to feed the 

factories or people of their native land. 

m .# # # # 

Across the Channel, again, the wave of Roman 
Catholicism which is passing at present over the youth 
of France has come as a phenomenon sufficiently 
surprising to excite numerous inquiries into its origin. 
The results have been summed up in an interesting 
volume by M. Alfred de Tarde and another writer, 
under the pseudonym of Agathon. 1 These writers 
point out that the dominating spirit of the French 
youth of to-day is the desire for action and 
discipline, and that this is " gradually bringing the 
best of them to the powerful and time-honoured 
organism of the Catholic Church." Between their 
realistic sense and dogma they feel there is a certain 
harmony, and in Catholic doctrine they leave doubt 
behind and can plunge into action and the accom- 
plishment of their objects in life without worrying 
their minds about the problems of existence. 2 

I, too, have been watching the growth of this new 
spirit among the younger generations of French- 
men. 

One of the features of this Neo-Catholicism in 
France is that it is not necessarily based on belief in 
Divine revelation. It seems like a contradiction of 
terms to speak of faith detached from belief. The 
faith they have, however, seems to be an act of 

1 " Les Jeunes Gens d'aujourd'hui " : Paris, 1913. 

2 Op. cit, p. 93. 

33° 



AFTERWORDS 

volition, a faith which consists in a refusal to examine 
their own minds. If you ask them if they believe in 
any of the Church dogmas or miracles, they decline 
to go into the question. They need no proof, no 
explanation, no conviction even of a Divine cause. 
They accept blindly on purpose. They have a faith 
external to their reason which leaves it free, and 
all introspection is sacrificed to a determined and 
emphatic pragmatism. 

This pragmatism evidently satisfies some craving 
for relief from the inner conscience. 

In England we have a movement not unlike it in 
English Catholicism. But, like Old Catholicism, it 
lacks the authority which exacts blind obedience and 
it does not take that entire possession of the conscience 
which makes it possible to keep the intellect separate, 
independent and free. It lacks the minute organisa- 
tion and control of a single, directing and unchallenged 
authority and the prestige of centuries of concentrated 
energy. 

Many in both countries among the younger genera- 
tions, moreover, feel that our respective peoples, in 
losing faith in the spiritual guidance of religion, are 
losing something which held all classes and interests 
under the same moral tutelage. 

Both turn to Catholicism as a system under which, 
through the confession, the priest can get at the 
individual conscience and guide it back to respect for 
order and authority. 

The mode of thought of these younger thinkers, in 
fact, seems to be somewhat as follows : — "To what does 
the analysis of your perceptions lead, to what this 
vivisection of your inner self, this excavation of your 
conscious being ? You are not laying the foundations 

33 1 



THIRTY YEARS 

of anything. You are only undermining the founda- 
tions of existing structures. The best that can be said 
for your philosophy is that it is a mental discipline, 
in each case, however, depending on the mental 
character of each writer. Away with all these useless 
dialectics ! Let us stop excavating. Analysis leads 
only to further analysis, and a new fact may come 
along, such as the discovery of radium, and scatter 
your theories to the wind. Your analysis, moreover, 
has a bad effect on the minds of people who take it 
seriously. Thinking is no longer confined to any 
class. The newspaper, the periodical and cheap 
literature have opened wide all the doors of speculation 
and inquiry, and the result on the half-trained mind 
of your analysis is simply the destruction of the founda- 
tions of morality and law, the relaxation of discipline 
and the substitution for the traditions of honour, 
courage, patriotism, self-sacrifice, and all the qualities 
that ennoble mankind, of a self-indulgent licence and 
contempt for anything but the grossest egoism. Let 
us go back to the spirit of reverence, to the forms and 
practice of a religion which makes men do things, the 
traditions of which are full of noble sentiment, and the 
teaching of which gives a sense of security and peace 
to the conscience of a too self-analytic age. Let us 
build on this time-honoured foundation to which the 
character, the mind and the feeling of the Western 
man has become attuned. For this we do not need 
theology. Never mind dogma. The practice of rever- 
ence, prayer and confession are enough — especially 
confession, confession to the priest, sanctified by the 
holiness and secrecy of his office, untrammelled by 
ambition or family cares, experienced and thoughtful, 
who can give advice and consolation, and to whom 

332 



AFTERWORDS 

you can tell the troubles of your conscience, and from 
whom you can get kindly and disinterested sympathy." 

This I take to be the reasoning of many of the more 
intelligent neo-Catholics in both countries. 

All men are not of the same character, and the vast 
majority seem to need a form of worship for their 
moral guidance. The French mind has gone farthest 
in the negation of this need. It seems again to be 
leading in a movement which, however, seems 
singularly devoid of that spirit of charity towards 
one's fellow man, of tolerance for scrupulous dissent, 
and of those generous impulses which are charac- 
teristic of what is permanent in French civilisation. 
***** 

On the other hand, I cannot help connecting with 
it what a French lad who was doing his military 
service a few years ago said in reply to my banal 
question of how he liked it. 

" It is delightful," he said, " to have to do what you 
are told, just to carry out orders, to be a mere wheel 
in the machine, to have no responsibility." 

Are French education and examinations fatiguing 
the brain beyond its physical capacity ? I have seen 
young men who have required a brain rest to 
recover from the excessive mental exertion of their 
school life. The young friend I have quoted was 
tired, and I cannot help thinking that many of the 
cases referred to by Agathon are more or less 

parallel to his. 

***** 

There has always been a driving " character in 
French civilisation, and France is still the intellectual 
clockwork of the world. Her genius is the spring, 
ticking off progress It keeps the little wheels of the 

333 



THIRTY YEARS 

national life in slow but constant motion, and the big 
wheel flying madly round is thinking Paris dazzling 
the world with its ceaseless speed. The world often 
forgets that behind the big wheel is the little one 
turning it and that behind the little one is the spring, 
the genius, the inexhaustible vitality of a race that 
has stood in the front of the Europe of thought, 
invention, wit and art for half a millennium. 

My long connection with France has never 
diminished my admiration for her people. Paris 
is an intellectual Brighton. There the wind blows 
through your thoughts as at Brighton it blows through 
your clothes. Even when a tempestuous wind blows 
there, the storm-swept streets are only the cleaner, 
the air more vigorous and one's mind braced the more 
to effort. There you may talk at random, think aloud 
and, amid the sans-gene of the French mind, have the 
glorious sensation of the open sea and the mountain- 
top, of a broad unending landscape in which facts 
fade into a horizon of mystery and conjecture roams 
amid a freedom that knows no bourn. 

There nine-tenths of the world's originality are 
centralised, and men with the gift of perennial youth 
are bursting with new thoughts in philosophy, art, 
literature, science, medicine, politics, which make 
the plain mental food of London seem stodgy, 
though one is glad after a month in such a 
super-active atmosphere to return to one's quiet 
old capital and let one's mental tissue have time to 
absorb all these new and exciting impressions. 

Thirty years of conscious, progressive, and deter- 
minate activity, educational, literary, legal, social and 

334 



AFTERWORDS 

political, require rest and meditation before the re- 
sulting impressions condense into those homogeneous 
layers in which one can effectively see their bearing 
and lessons. 

Among them have been many Illusions perdues, 
illusions of friendship, illusions of kindness misunder- 
stood, illusions of good purposes misrepresented, 
illusions of affection and sacrifice requited with in- 
gratitude and treachery. On the other hand stand 
out the unfailing goodness of many friends, men 
and women, and the warm response of the French 
people itself to all generous and humanitarian efforts. 
The educated multitude of Englishmen, in spite of 
diplomatic misconceptions, have at all times been 
admirers of and friends of France. To convince 
Frenchmen of this was the task I had set myself. 
No words touch me so deeply as to be called " cet 
ami de la France " with which I am greeted through- 
out the Republic, and there is no illusion about this 
on my or their part, for I love the French with all 
the sincerity of one who has seen a generation of 
modern France grow up, seen it fighting for progress, 
for integrity, for social well-being, for all that can 
make for betterment at home, and for appreciation 
abroad, seen the self-effacing greatness of some of her 
noblest citizens and the ultimate triumph throughout 
the country not only of the spirit of justice, but 
of that spirit of atonement which has effaced the 
egarements of a time of great national emotion. 

One word to students of the character of current 
French civilisation before I close : judge it neither 
by French fiction nor from sensational cases, political 
or non-political, tried in the Law Courts or in the Press. 

335 



THIRTY YEARS 

The French have a weakness for washing their " dirty 
linen " on the front-door steps and no doubt there is 
a good deal of linen to " ring out " still. That they 
talk frankly about it and spare nobody is surely not 
a sign of indulgence for dishonesty or sin. To drag 
corruption into the broad light of day and hold it up 
to the indignation of their fellow-men is surely not a 
sign of moral decrepitude. It may be impolitic. 
Conventionality, prudery, hypocrisy may save us 
from scandals, but in France scandals are mere sur- 
face waves, beneath which the steady, moral, 
industrious life of the French people goes on unsullied 
dv their influence and indifferent to their example. 



336 



APPENDICES 



I 



Presidents of the Republic. 



M. Thiers 

Marshal MacMahon 
M. Jules Grevy 
M. Sadi Carnot 
M. Casimir-Perier 
M. Felix-Faure. . 
M. Emile Loubet 
M. Armand Fallieres 
M. Raymond Poincare 



Date of Election. 

Aug. 31, 1871. 
May 25, 1873. 
Jan. 30, 1879. 
Dec. 3, 1887. 
June 27, 1894. 
Jan. 17, 1895. 
Feb. 18, 1899. 
Feb. 18, 1906. 
Jan, 17, 1913 



II 



French Prime Ministers and Ministers of Foreign 



Prime Ministers. 

General Trochu 
Thiers 

Due de Broglie 
Due de Broglie 
General de Cissey 
Buffet 
Dufaure 
Jules Simon . . 
Due de Broglie 
General de Gnrm 
de Rocheboiiet 
Dufaure 
Waddington 
de Freycinet 
Jules Ferry 

Leon Gambetta 
de Freycinet . . 
Duel ere 

T.Y. 



Affairs since 1870. 

Ministers of Foreign Affairs. 

Jules Favre 
Jules Favre 
Due de Broglie 
Due Decazes 
Due Decazes 
Due Decazes 
Due Decazes 
Due Decazes 
Due Decazes 



idel 



de Banneville 
Waddington 
Waddington 
de Freycinet 
Barthelemy-Saint 

Hilaire. . 
Leon Gambetta 
de Freycinet 
Duclerc . . 

337 



Date of Appointment. 

Sept. 4, 1870. 
Feb. 19, 1871. 
May 25, 1873. 
Nov. 26, 1873. 
May 22, 1874. 
March 10, 1875. 
March 9, 1876. 
Dec. 12, 1876. 
May 17, 1877. 

Nov. 23, 1877. 
Dec. 13, 1877. 
Feb. 4, 1879. 
Dec. 28, 1879. 

Sept. 23, 1880. 
Nov. 14, 1881. 
Jan. 30, 1882. 
Aug. 7. 1882. 



APPENDICES 



Prime Ministers. 

Fallieres 

Jules Ferry 

Henri Brisson. . 

de Freycinet . . 

Rene Goblet . . 

Rouvier 

Tirard 

Floquet 

Tirard 

de Freycinet . . 

Loubet 

Ribot 

Ribot 

Charles Dupuy 
Casimir-Perier 
Charles Dupuy 
Charles Dupuy 
Ribot 

Bourgeois 

Jules Meline . . 
Brisson 

Charles Dupuy 
Charles Dupuy 
Waldeck-Rousseau 
Emile Combes 

Maurice Rouvier 

Maurice Rouvier 

Sarrien 

Georges Clemenceau 

Aristide Briand 

Aristide Briand 

Monis 

Caillaux 

Poincare 

Aristide Briand 

Barthou 

Doumergue 



Ministers of Foreign Affairs. 

Fallieres {interim) 
' Challemel-Lacour 
Jules Ferry 
[ (20-II-1883) 

de Freycinet 
de Freycinet 
Flourens 
Flourens 
Flourens 
Rene Goblet 
Spuller 
Ribot 
Ribot 
Ribot 
Develle 
Develle 

Casimir-Perier . . 
Hanotaux 
Hanotaux 
Hanotaux 
f Berthelot 

Bourgeois 

(30-3-1896) 
Hanotaux 

Delcasse 

Delcasse 

Delcasse 

Delcasse 

Delcasse 

Delcasse 

Rouvier 

(17-6-1905) 

Rouvier . . 

Bourgeois 

Stephen Pichon 

Stephen Pichon 

Stephen Pichon 

Cruppi 

de Selves. . 

Poincare . . 

Jonnart . . 

Stephen Pichon 

Doumergue 

338 



Date of Appointment. 

Jan. 29, 1883. 
Feb. 21, 1883. 



April 6, 1885. 
Jan. 7, 1886. 
Dec. 12, 1886. 
May 30, 1887. 
Dec. 12, 1887. 
April 3, 1888. 
Feb. 22, 1889. 
March 17, 1890. 
Feb. 27, 1892. 
Dec. 6, 1892. 
Jan. n, 1893. 
April 4, 1893. 
Dec. 3, 1893. 
May 30, 1894. 
July I, 1894. 
Jan. 26, 1895. 
Nov. 1, 1895 



April 29, 1896. 
June 28, 1898. 
Nov. 1, 1898. 
Feb. 18, 1899. 
June 22, 1899. 
June 7, 1902. 
Jan. 24, 1905 



Feb. 18, 1906. 
March 14, 1906. 
Oct. 25, 1906. 
July 24, 1909. 
Nov. 3, 1910. 
March 2, 191 1. 
June 27, 191 1. 
Jan. 14, 1912. 
Jan, 21, 1913. 
March 21, 1913. 
Dec, 9, 1913, 



APPENDICES 



Bi 



III 

French Ambassadors to London 



Due de Broglie 

Comte Bernard d'Harcourt 

Due Decazes 

De la Rochefoucauld, Due d 

Comte de Jarnac 

Marquis d'Harcourt . . 

Vice-amiral Pothuau. . 

Leon Say 

Challemel-Lacour 

Tissot 

Waddington 

Decrais 

Baron de Courcel 

Paul Cambon 



since 1870. 
Appointed. 
Feb. 19, 1871. 
May I, 1872. 
Sept. 20, 1873. 
Dec. 4, 1873. 
Aug. 28, 1874. 
May 8, 1875. 
Feb. 18, 1879. 
April 30. 1880. 
June II, 1880. 
Feb. 21, 1882. 
July 18, 1883. 
July 21, 1893. 
Oct. 4, 1894. 
Sept. 21, 1898. 



IV 



British Secretaries of State 
since 1870. 
Earl Granville 
Earl of Derby 
Marquess of Salisbury 
Earl Granville 
Marquess of Salisbury 
Earl of Rosebery 
Earl of Iddesleigh 
Marquess of Salisbury 
Earl of Rosebery 
Earl of Kimberley . 
Marquess of Salisbury 
Marquess of Lansdowne 
Sir Edward Grey 



for Foreign Affairs 



July 6, 1870. 
Feb. 21, 1874. 
April 2, 1878. 
April 28, 1880. 
June 24, 1885. 
Feb. 6, 1886. 
Aug. 3, 1886. 
Jan. 14, 1887. 
Aug. 18, 1892. 
March 1 1, 1894. 
June 29, 1895. 
Nov. 12, 1900. 
Dec. 11, 1905. 



V 



British 
Lord Lyons 



Lord Lytton . . 
Lord Duff erin . . 
Sir Edmund Monson 
Sir F. Bertie . . 



Ambassadors to Paris since 1870. 

Feb. 18, 1871 
1887 



339 



Nov. 1, 
Dec. 15, 1891. 
Oct. 15, 1896. 
Jan. 1, 1905 

Z 2 



APPENDICES 



VI 

Summary of Arguments, British and French, in Favour 
of Arbitration Treaty and Entente (1901-3). 

In England. 

The suggestion is that Articles 6 and 7 of the Salisbury- 
Cleveland Treaty of 1897 between Great Britain and the 
United States might be taken as the basis of negotiations. 

This Treaty was not ratified by the American Senate ; 
there were forty-two votes in its favour, and twenty-six 
against it. The majority fell, by four votes, short of the 
two-thirds requisite under the United States Constitution 
for the ratification of such a Treaty. 

The Salisbury-Cleveland Treaty provided for the peaceable 
settlement of different kinds of difficulties. 

As regards those in which an award of damages is the proper 
solution, the present practice is to resort to Arbitration, and 
the Hague Court is now provided with machinery for dealing 
with such cases. 

Articles 6 and 7 of the Salisbury-Cleveland Treaty dealt 
with a class of cases of a more delicate kind — viz., territorial 
claims and questions of principle of grave importance affecting 
national rights. For these the procedure provided by the 
Treaty was that of conciliation. The Articles in question are 
as follows : — 

Art. 6. — Any controversy which shall involve the 
determination of territorial claims shall be submitted to 
a Tribunal composed of six members, three of whom 
(subject to the provisions of Article 8) shall be Judges of 
the British Supreme Court of Judicature or members of 
the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, to be 
nominated by His Britannic Majesty, and the other three 
of whom (subject to the provisions of Article 8) shall be 
Judges of the Supreme Court of the United States or 
Justices of the Circuit Courts, to be nominated by the 
President of the United States, whose Award, by a 
majority of not less than five to one, shall be final. In 
case of an Award made by less than the prescribed 
majority, the Award shall also be final unless either 
Power shall, within three months after the Award has 

34° 



APPENDICES 

been reported, protest that the same is erroneous, in 
which case the Award shall be of no validity. 

In the event of an Award made by less than the 
prescribed majority, and protested as above provided, 
or if the members of the Arbitral Tribunal shall be equally 
divided, there shall be no recourse to hostile measures of 
any description until the mediation of one or more 
friendly Powers has been invited by one or both of the 
High Contracting Parties. 

Art. 7. — Objections to the jurisdiction of an Arbitral 
Tribunal constituted under this Treaty shall not be taken 
except as provided in this Article. 

If, before the close of the hearing upon a claim sub- 
mitted to an Arbitral Tribunal constituted under Article 3 
or Article 5, either of the High Contracting Parties shall 
move such Tribunal to decide, and thereupon it shall 
decide, that the determination of such claim necessarily 
involves the decision of a disputed question of principle 
of grave general importance affecting the national rights 
of such Party, as distinguished from the private rights 
whereof it is merely the international representative, the 
jurisdiction of such Arbitral Tribunal over such claim 
shall cease, and the same shall be dealt with by arbitration 
under Article 6. 

Considerations in Favour of the Proposed Treaty. 

1. Great Britain and France have common interests of a 
commercial and industrial kind, the prosperity of which is 
dependent upon the preservation of peace between them. 
" There are no two countries in the world whose mutual 
prosperity is more dependent on each other." (The King, 
May 1st, 1903.) 

2. France is the nearest neighbour of the British Isles, and 
war between two countries so situated would inevitably 
produce, whatever its ultimate result might be, disastrous 
consequences for both parties, and " be one of the greatest 
misfortunes which could befall the world." (Lord Charles 
Beresford, letter, July 17th, 1902.) 

3. British and French Colonial possessions and dependencies 
touch in most parts of the globe, and the peaceful and friendly 
development of intercourse between them is for their mutual 
benefit. 

4. Difficulties and contentions do and must necessarily 

341 



APPENDICES 

arise between two peoples who are so often brought into 
contact, and it is desirable that some means be employed to 
prevent such difficulties and contentions from again assuming 
the dangerous character they have several times assumed in 
recent years, to avoid, in fact, " the unrest and uncertainty 
that the possibility of war begets." (Lord Provost Chisholm, 
of Glasgow, letter, June 4th, 1902.) 

5. It seems certain that public irritation would be less likely 
to be inflamed by international difficulties which ordinary 
diplomacy may have not solved, if provision were made for 
obligatory reference of such difficulties to a further stage of 
consideration by which the danger of a deadlock might still 
be averted. 

6. The Treaty for the adjustment of differences between 
Great Britain and the United States signed on the 12th 
January, 1897, by the representatives of the Governments 
of the two nations, providing for the automatic reference 
of disputes of national importance to a Commission, composed 
of persons belonging exclusively to the two nations themselves, 
seems adapted to supply what is required. A Commission 
so constituted is a guarantee to the general public that no 
vital national interest would be imperilled by considerations 
of abstract justice or on purely humanitarian grounds. 

7. If such a Treaty was desirable as between Great Britain 
and the United States, it must also be desirable as between 
Great Britain and France, whose intercourse with one another 
is still closer. 

8. " The moral effect of such a Treaty would be very great, 
not only as affecting the public mind, but as affecting the 
mind of the statesmen who have to control the destinies of 
the two countries." (Lord Chief Justice Alverstone, speech 
at Glasgow, August 20th, 1901.) " It would compel both 
parties, if in any way excited, to delay decision until the 
passions were calmed." (Dr. Donaldson, Principal of St. 
Andrew's University, letter, June 16th, 1902.) "Time would 
be gained in a critical event, and time gained was very often 
temper cooled." (Sir W. H. Holland, M.P., speech at Notting- 
ham, September 3rd, 1901.) 

9. A Treaty of the kind suggested might be entered into, 
like the Anglo-American Treaty, for a limited period, and 
made to run on subject to a comparatively short period of 
notice of withdrawal from it. 

10. The present feeling on both sides of the Channel is 
propitious for placing the good relations between the two 

34 2 



APPENDICES 

peoples on a permanent footing of amity, and it is suggested 
that, whatever the result, agitation for such an object " can 
do nothing but good " (Right Hon. W. E. Lecky, letter, 
June 4th, 1902) as regards the friendly relations between them, 
and should, therefore, be actively encouraged. 

11. It is proposed that Governments be approached as 
soon as public opinion seems ripe for negotiation between the 
two countries. 

In France. 

Lors de l'examen, en premiere lecture, du projet russe de 
Convention d'Arbitrage a la Conference de La Haye, les 
delegues des puissances avaient accepte l'arbitrage obligatoire 
pour un certain nombre de cas enumeres dans Particle 10, 
mais en tant que ces cas se rapportaient a des questions ne 
touchant pas aux interets vitaux ni a Vhonneur national des 
parties en litige. 

En deuxieme lecture, la caractere obligatoire de l'arbitrage 
pour ces cas a ete repousse et la raison d'etre de cette enumera- 
tion est tombee. 

Le recours au Tribunal de La Haye reste done purement 
facultatif et il n'a pas ete question a La Haye d'etendre l'arbi- 
trage aux questions touchant aux interets vitaux et a l'honneur 
national des Etats. 

Ce sont pourtant plutot ces questions qui sont les plus 
susceptibles d'amener des conflits armes. II y a, par conse- 
quent, lieu de completer la Convention de La Haye, par des 
traites complementaires, ainsi que le prevoit son article 19. l 

A titre de suggestion et simplement comme precedent et 
base possible, il est rappele qu'un traite stipulant le recours 
obligatoire a l'arbitrage et Petendant a tous les differends sans 
exception, a ete conclu en 1897 entre la Grande-Bretagne et 
les Etats-Unis. 

Ce traite, anterieur a la Convention de La Haye, creait des 
categories de tribunaux differents suivant la nature des litiges. 
Depuis la signature de cette Convention, une seule interesse 
la Grande-Bretagne et la France, e'est la categorie dont 
parlent les deux articles suivants : 

1 Art. 19. — Independamment des Traites generaux ou particuliers qui 
stipulent actuellement l'obligation du recours a l'arbitrage pour les puissances 
signataires, ces puissances se reservent de conclure, soit avant la ratification 
du present acte, soit posterieurement, des accords nouveaux, generaux, ou 
particuliers, en vue d'etendre ''arbitrage obligatoire a tous les cas qu'elles 
jugeront possible de lui soumettre. 

343 



APPENDICES 

Art. VI. — Tout differend qui impliquera le reglement 
de questions territoriales, sera soumis a un tribunal 
compose de six membres dont trois (comme le prevoit 
l'art. 8) seront des juges de la Cour Supreme de Justice 
britannique ou des membres du Comite judiciaire du 
Conseil prive, que designera Sa Majeste Britannique, et 
les autres trois qui, (comme le prevoit l'art. 8) seront des 
juges de la Cour Supreme des Etats-Unis ou des juges des 
Cours de Circuit que designera le President de la Repub- 
lique des Etats-Unis et leur sentence arbitrale rendue a 
la majorite d'au moins cinq sur six, reglera definitivement 
le difrerend. 

Au cas ou la sentence n'aurait pas obtenu la majorite 
prescrite, elle sera tout de meme decisive a moins que 
l'une ou l'autre des puissances, dans les trois mois a 
partir du jour de la publication de la sentence, ne proteste 
et ne la declare entachee d'erreur, auquel cas la sentence 
n'aura aucune valeur. 

Dans le cas ou une sentence arbitrale aura ete rendue 
par une majorite inferieure a celle prescrite et protestee 
comme il est ci-dessus prevu, ou si les membres du 
Tribunal arbitral sont partages egalement, il ne sera 
recouru a aucune mesure hostile de quelque sorte, jusqu'a 
ce que la mediation d'une ou de plusieurs puissances amies 
ait ete sollicitee par une ou les deux parties contractantes. 

Art. VII. — Les objections a la competence d'un tribunal 
arbitral constitue d'apres ce traite ne seront pas 
recevables, sauf dans les cas prevus dans cet article. 

Si avant la cloture de l'audition d'une reclamation 
soumise a un tribunal arbitral constitue d'apres Particle 
3 ou l'article 5, l'une ou l'autre des deux hautes parties 
contractantes requiert ce tribunal de decider, et que 
la-dessus il decide que le reglement d'une telle reclamation 
implique necessairement le reglement d'une question de 
principe controversee, de grave et generale importance 
et qui afFecte les droits nationaux de cette partie, dis- 
tingues des droits particuliers dont elle n'est que le 
representant international, la competence de ce tribunal 
pour cette reclamation cessera et celle-ci sera soumise a 
l'arbitrage tel que le prevoit l'article VI. 

II est evident que le recours doit etre automatique, obliga- 
toire et general pour produire l'effet immediat necessaire 
quand un grave incident se produit. 

344 



APPENDICES 

Considerations en Faveur du Traite Propose. 

1. Le traite serait la consecration solennelle d'un etat 
d' esprit pacifique anterieur qu'il tendrait a prolonger et qui 
est toujours la plus grande garantie de la paix. 

2. La Grande-Bretagne et la France ont ensemble au point 
de vue industriel et commercial des interets communs dont 
la prosperite depend du maintien de cet etat d'esprit pacifique 
entre elles. 

3. La France est la voisine la plus proche des lies Britan- 
niques, et une guerre entre deux pays ainsi situes produirait 
inevitablement, quelle qu'en fut l'issue, des consequences 
desastreuses des deux cotes, et serait l'une des plus grandes 
calamites qui pourraient s'abattre sur le monde. 

4. Les possessions coloniales francaises et anglaises se 
touchent partout, et le developpement pacifique et amical 
des relations de l'Angleterre et de la France sert a leur avantage 
reciproque. 

5. Des difficultes et des conflits s'elevent et doivent neces- 
sairement s'elever entre deux nations qui sont si frequemment 
mises en contact et il est a souhaiter qu'on emploie quelque 
moyen pour empecher que ces difficultes et ces conflits n'assu- 
ment le dangereux caractere qu'ils ont eu a plusieurs reprises 
dans ces dernieres annees et eviter le trouble et l'incertitude 
qu'engendre la possibilite d'une guerre. 

6. II parait certain que la colere publique serait moins 
susceptible d'etre excitee par les difficultes internationales 
que la diplomatic n'a pas resolues, si ces difficultes etaient 
obligatoirement soumises meme seulement a une nouvelle 
discussion permettant d'eviter le danger d'une rupture de 
relations. 

7. Un traite, rendant le recours a la Cour de La Haye 
obligatoire avec une clause complementaire calquee sur le 
precedent des articles VI et VII du traite signe le 1 1 Janvier 
1897, par les representants de la Grande Bretagne et des 
Etats-Unis, pour le reglement des differends entre ces deux 
pays touchant les interets vitaux et l'honneur national, a 
une Commission composee de personnes appartenant exclusive- 
ment aux deux nations elles-memes, semble capable de fournir 
le rnoyen cherche. L'art. 32 de la Convention de la Haye, 
d'ailleurs, prevoit la choix possible d'Arbitres ad hoc, et 
n'etant pas membres ordinaires de la Cour permanente. 

8. Les negociateurs d'un tel traite pourraient aussi 
supprimer les restrictions posees dans l'art. IX de la Con- 

345 



APPENDICES 

vention de la Haye au fonctionnement et a la competence des 
Commissions internationales d'enquete. 

9. L'effet moral d'un tel traite serait tres grand, parce que 
non seulement il produirait un effet moderateur sur 1' opinion 
publique, mais aussi sur l'esprit des hommes d'Etat qui ont 
le controle des destinees des deux pays. II permettrait aux 
Etats contractants, en cas de surexcitation de l'opinion 
publique, de retarder neanmoins leur decision jusqu'a ce que 
les passions se soient calmees. On gagnerait du temps a un 
moment critique et du temps gagne signifie souvent une colere 
apaisee. 

10. Un traite de l'espece suggeree pourrait etre conclu, 
comme le traite anglo-americain, pour une periode de temps 
limitee. 

11. Les sentiments qui prevalent actuellement des deux 
cotes de la Manche sont propices pour placer les bonnes 
relations des deux nations sur une base permanente d'amitie. 



VII 

Unofficial Support given to the Movement. 

Resolutions in favour of the Treaty, apart from the collec- 
tive resolution of the Association of Chambers of Commerce, 
were adopted by the following : — 
British Chambers of Commerce, Trade, and Shipping. 

Aberdeen. 

Barnsley. 

Barrow-in-Furness. 

Batley. 

Belfast. 

Birmingham (special resolu- 
tion). 

Birstal. 

Blackburn. 

Bolton. 

Bradford. 

Bristol (special resolution). 

Bury. 

Canterbury (special resolu- 
tion). 

Cardiff (special resolution). 

Chesterfield. 

Cleckheaton. 



Croydon. 

Derby. 

Dover (special resolution). 

Dublin (special resolution). 

Dudley. 

Dundee (special resolution). 

Dunfermline (special resolu- 
tion). 

Dewsbury. 

Edinburgh (special resolu- 
tion). 

Exeter. 

Falmouth. 

Glasgow (special resolution). 

Goole. 

Great Grimsby (special resolu- 
tion). 

Greenock (special resolution). 



34 6 



APPENDICES 



Halifax (special resolution). 

Hartlepool. 

Heckmondwike. 

Huddersfield (special resolu- 
tion). 

Hull. 

Jersey. 

Keighley. 

Kendal. 

Kidderminster. 

Lancaster. 

Leeds (special resolution). 

Leicester. 

Lincoln. 

Liverpool. 

Llanelly. 

London (special resolution). 

Londonderry. 

Luton (special resolution). 

Macclesfield. 

Manchester (special resolu- 
tion). 

Middlesbrough-on-Tees. 

Morley. 

Newcastle-on-Tyne. 

Newport. 

North Shields and Tyne- 
mouth. 

(Adopted at different 



North Staffordshire. 

Nottingham. 

Oldham. 

Osset. 

Paris, British Chamber of 
(special resolution). 

Plymouth. 

Portsmouth (special resolu- 
tion). 

Sheffield (special resolution). 

Southampton. 

South of Scotland (special 
resolution). 

Southport. 

Stockton and Thornaby. 

Stroud. 

Sunderland. 

Swansea (special resolution). 

Tunbridge Wells. 

Wakefield (special resolu- 
tion). 

Walsall (special resolution). 

Warrington. 

Wolverhampton (special reso- 
lution). 

Worcester. 

Yeadon. 

York (special resolution). 

dates, from July, 1901.) 



French Chambers of Commerce. 



Londres (30 Oct. 1901). 
Clermont-Ferrand (29 Mai 

1901). 
Boulogne-sur-Mer (8 Nov. 

1901). 
Le Havre (4 Avril 1902). 
Bordeaux (14 Mars 1902). 
Dunkerque (7 Avril 1902). 
Marseille (22 Avril 1902). 
Calais (25 Avril 1902). 
Toulouse (5 Mai 1902). 



Besancon (13 Mai 1902). 
Beaune (29 Mai 1902). 
Cambrai (31 Mai 1902). 
Nimes (4 Juin 1902). 
Lille (14 Juin 1902). 
Angouleme (7 Juillet 1902). 
Sydney (Australie) (31 Mai 

1902). 
Bayonne (14 Juin 1902). 
Roubaix (5 Juillet 1902). 
Rouen (31 Juillet 1902). 



347 



APPENDICES 

Niort (28 Oct. 1902). Bougie (7 Mars 1903). 

Valenciennes (4 Nov. 1902). Mazamet (10 Mars 1903). 

Belfort (23 Janvier 1903). Alger (11 Mars 1903). 

Le Treport (7 Fev. 1903). Auxerre (12 Mars 1903). 

Fougeres (9 Fev. 1903). Moulins (20 Mars 1903). 

Tourcoing (13 Fev. 1903). Grenoble (26 Mars 1903). 

Oran (14 Fev. 1903). Bar-le-Duc (26 Mars 1903). 

Caen (17 Fev. 1903). Laval (3 Avril 1903). 

Cette (18 Fev. 1903). Bolbec (6 Avril 1903). 

Aubenas (21 Fev. 1903). Saumur (6 Mai 1903). 

Limoges (27 Fev. 1903). Meaux ( — Juin 1903). 
Rochefort-sur-Mer (5 Mars Chalons-sur-Marne. 

1903). Roche-sur-Yon, etc., etc. 

President de la Chambre de Commerce de Lyon (22 Mai 

1902). 
President de la Chambre de Commerce de Paris (10 

Decembre 1901). 
Syndicat du Commerce des Eaux-de-Vie de Cognac 

(10 Janvier 1903). 
Comite Francais des Expositions a l'Etranger (20 Mai 

i9°3). 

Working Men's Associations. 

Meeting of British and French Delegates of Working Men's 
Associations at Shoreditch Town Hall, 57 French Associa- 
tions represented (June 15, 1901). 

Manchester and Salford Trades and Labour Council, 21,000 
members (June 19, 1902). 

Iron Founders' Society, 18,000 m. (July 5, 1902). 

Northumberland Miners' Mutual Confident Association, 
23,000 m. (June 14, 1902). 

Tailors' Association, 16,000 m. (July 10, 1902). 

International Co-operative Congress, Manchester (July 25, 
1902). Proposed by Mr. T. Bland, Vice-Chairman of 
the Co-operative Wholesale Society (over 1,000,000 m.), 
and seconded by Mr. Romanet, Manager of the Co- 
operative Lithographic Society of Paris (H. W. Wolff in 
the chair). 

National Union of Boot and Shoe Operatives, 28,000 m. 
(August 15, 1902). 

National Association of Operative Plasterers, 10,070 m. 
(August 29, 1902). 

348 



APPENDICES 

Amalgamated Society of Boilermakers and Iron Shipbuilders, 

49,000 m. (August 30, 1902). 
National Hosiery Federation, 3,000 m. (September 9, 1902). 
Bookbinders' and Machine Rulers' Consolidated Union, 

4,000 m. (September 23, 1902). 
Amalgamated Association of Operative Cotton Spinners, 

18,415 m. (September 27, 1902). 
Furnishing Trades Association, 7,000 m. (September 3, 1902). 
Fawcett Association, 3,000 m. (October 11, 1902). 
Textile Factory Workers' Association, 150,000 m. (October 11, 

1902). 
Beamers, Twisters and Drawers, 4,000 m. (October 11, 1902). 
Gasworkers and General Labourers, 48,000 m. (October 13, 

1902). 
United Carters of England, 3,000 m. (October 13, 1902). 
London Carmen's Union, 4,000 m. (October 14, 1902). 
Co-operative Employes' Union, 8,000 m. (October 15, 1902). 
Dock, Wharf, Riverside, and General Workers' Union, 12,000 

m. (October 27, 1902). 
Cigar Makers' Mutual Association, 2,000 m. (October 28, 1902). 
Amalgamated Society of Steel and Iron Workers of Great 

Britain, 8,000 m. (November 4, 1902). 
British Steel Smelters, Mill and Tinplate Workers' Association, 

10,541 m. (November 25, 1902). 
National Amalgamated Union of Labour, 33,300 m. (November 

28, 1902). 
Associated Ironmoulders of Scotland, 8,000 m. (December 1, 

1902). 
Municipal Employes' Association, 4,000 m. (February 2, 1903). 
House and Ship Painters and Decorators, 11,000 m. (February 

2, 1903). 
National Union of Life Assurance Agents, 1,990 m. 

(February 19, 1903). 
Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, 76,000 m. (March 

16, 1903). 
Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners, 75,000 m. 

(April 17, 1903). 
Postmen's Federation, 25,000 m. (April 22, 1903). 
Dundee Trades Council (April 28, 1903). 
Parliamentary Committee of Scottish Trade Unions, 160,000 m. 

(May 2, 1903). 
National Federation of Bleachers and Dyers, 10,000 m. 

(May 23, 1903). 
Commercial Travellers' Association, 13,000 m. (June 3, 1903). 

349 



APPENDICES 

London Printing Managers' Trade Society, 2,500 m. 

(August 13, 1903). 
Radical and Socialist Congress, Marseilles (September, 1903). 

Municipal Councils. 

Hyeres (May 30, 1902). Nimes (May 26, 1903). 

Menton (July 26, 1902). Rochefort-sur-Mer (May 27, 
Roubaix (Nov. 7, 1902). I9°3)- 

Havre (Dec. 10, 1902). Niort (May 29, 1903). 

Rouen (Jan. 29, 1903). Cette (June 5, 1903). 
St. Nazaire (March 1, 1903). Cannes (June 11, 1903). 

Cardiff (March 9, 1903). Grenoble (June 26, 1903). 

Lille (April 17, 1903). Bar-le-Duc (June 27, 1903). 
Boulogne-sur-Mer (April 22, Angers (July 17, 1903). 

1903). Cambrai (July 10, 1903). 

Bordeaux (May — , 1903). Fougeres (July 3, 1903). 

Dunkirk (May 8, 1903). la Rochelle (Aug. 14, 1903). 

Calais (May 15, 1903). Auxerre, etc. 

Arbitration, Peace, and Other Societies. 

La Societe Francaise d' Arbitrage entre Nations (March 27, 

1901). 
La Ligue Francaise pour les Droits des Femmes. 
La Presidente-Fondatrice de l'Association pour la Paix et la 

Desarmement par les Femmes. 
La Ligue Francaise pour la Defense des Droits de l'Homme et 

du Citoyen, section de Clermont-Ferrand. 
Les Amis de la Paix du Puy-de-D6me. 
Les Enfants de Gergovie. 
Le Bureau Francais de la Paix. 
L' Alliance Universelle des Femmes pour la Paix. Bureau 

central, Paris. 
Les Membres du Comite Senonais de la Societe d' Arbitrage 

entre Nations. 
Le Comite de Protection des Indigenes. 
La Ligue Rouennaise de la Paix. 
Le Bureau de la Societe Toulousaine de la Paix et des 

Succursales. 
Le Groupe Parisien de la Paix par le Droit. 
The Scarborough and District Peace and Arbitration Society 

(September 29, 1902). 
The International Peace Bureau (May 14, 1901). 

35° 



APPENDICES 

The Universal Peace Congress at Glasgow (September 10, 
1901). 

Resolutions were also adopted by : — 
The " Entente Cordiale " (Anglo-French Association) (July 15, 

1902). 
The Meeting for Sufferings of the Society of Friends (August 1, 

1902). 
The Universite Populaire de Fontenay-en-Vendee (May 2, 

I9°3). 
The Wesleyan Methodist Conference at Camborne (July 21, 

I9°3)- 

The International Law Association. 

Glasgow Meeting, under the Presidency of Lord Alverstone, 
Lord Chief Justice of England. Among those present 
were the following judges : — Lord Kinross, Lord President 
of the Court of Session, Mr. Justice Barnes, Mr. Justice 
Bruce, Mr. Justice Phillimore, Lord Young, and Lord 
Kincairney (August 30, 1901). 

Special Agitation Committees were formed at : — 

Havre (October 27, 1902). 1 Galashiels (April 27, 1903). 

Cardiff (February 26, 1903). Nancy (September 19, 1903). 

Glasgow (April 20, 1903). Sheffield (May II, 1903). 

Bordeaux (June 19, 1903). Leeds (May 15, 1903). 

Edinburgh (April 22, 1903). Paris (June 2, 1903). 

Dundee (April 24, 1903). Lyons (September 19, 1903). 

N.B. — Other Committees were in course of formation when 
the Arbitration Treaty was signed. In most cases the 
chambers of commerce and the municipal bodies have combined 
their efforts, e.g., Birmingham, Newcastle, Swansea, Liverpool, 
Manchester, Batley, Luton, York, Aberdeen, Dunfermline, etc., 
Lille, Roubaix, Angouleme, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Marseilles, etc. 

1 The Havre Committee (President : Mr. Joannes Couvert, President of 
the Chamber of Commerce ; Vice-President : Monsieur Maurice Taconet ; 
Hon. Secretary : Mr. P. Loiseau) received supporting resolutions from : — 

1. Chambre Syndicale des Ouvriers Voiliers du Havre (21 Juin 1903). 

2. Bourse du Travail (13 Juin 1903). 

3. Societe Co-operative des Ouvriers Charbonniers du Port du Havre 

(20 Juin 1903). 

4. Societe Mutuelle de Prevoyance des employes de Commerce du Havre 

(26 Juin 1903). 

5. Syndicat General du Commerce et de l'lndustrie (22 Juin 1903). 

6. Syndicat du Commerce des Cotons (25 Juin 1903). 

7. Society Anpnyme des Anciens Courtiers en Coton (23 Juin 1903). 

351 



APPENDICES 



Prominent Persons who Supported Movement. 

Among those who joined in the promotion of the movement 

were the following : — 

Lord Alverstone, Lord Chief Justice of England. 

Lord Kinross, Lord President of the Court of Session of 
Scotland. 

Lord Avebury, President of the Association of the Chambers 
of Commerce of the United Kingdom. 

John Westlake, K.C., Professor of International Law at 
Cambridge, one of the English Members of the Hague 
Court of Arbitration. 

T. E. Holland, K.C., Professor of International Law at Oxford. 

Sir Ludovic Grant, Professor of International Law at Edin- 
burgh. 

H. Brougham Leech, Professor of International Law at 
Dublin. 

Sir F. Pollock, Bart., Editor of the Law Quarterly Review and 
the Law Reports. 

Professor Henry Goudy, of Oxford. 

Sir John Macdonell, C.B., Professor of Comparative Juris- 
prudence at University College, London. 

Montague Crackanthorpe, K.C., Author of the article on Inter- 
national Arbitration in the " Encyclopaedia Britannica." 

Sir James Donaldson, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of St. 
Andrew's University. 

Ch. Lyon-Caen, Member of the Institute of France, Professor 
of the Paris Faculty of Law. 

Baron Pierre de Coubertin, Author of " Evolution Francaise 
sous la Troisieme Republique," etc., President of the 
" Comite International Olympique." 

Fernand Labori, Advocate and Editor of the Grande Revue. 

J. Finot, Editor of La Revue. 

Frederic Passy, Member of the Institute of France, President 
of the French Society for Arbitration between Nations. 

H. W. Wolff, President of the Co-operative Alliance. 

Admiral Lord Charles Beresford. 

Andrew Carnegie, LL.D., Lord Rector of the University of 
St. Andrews. 

Lord Brassey, Ex-Governor of Victoria, President of the 
London Chamber of Commerce. 

The Hon. J. I. Tarte, Ex-Canadian Minister of Public Works, 
Executive Commissioner for Canada at the Paris 
Exhibition of 1900. 

352 



APPENDICES 



Andre Weiss, Professor of the Paris Faculty of Law. 

Paul Blouet (Max O'Rell). 

Baron d'Estournelles de Constant, Ministre Plenipotentiaire, 

Membre de la Cour de la Haye. 
W. Blake Odgers, K.C. 
T. H. Carson, K.C. 
Very Rev. Robert H. Story, Principal of the University of 

Glasgow. 
The Rt. Hon. Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman, M.P. 
The Rt. Hon. John Morley, M.P. 
Lord Reay. 
Charles Scott Dickson, K.C, M.P., Solicitor-General for 

Scotland. 
The Rt. Hon. W. E. H. Lecky, M.P. for Dublin University. 



Sir W. Arrol, M.P. 

R. Hunter Craig, M.P. 

Dr. C. M. Douglas, M.P. 

Sir W. Dunn, Bart., M.P. 

J. Parker Smith, M.P. 

John Wilson, M.P. 

Alexander Wylie, M.P. 

Sir W. M. Holland, M.P. 

Ernest Beckett, M.P. 

H. Broadhurst, M.P. 

Sir Albert Rollit, M.P. 

D. A. Thomas, M.P. 

T. W. Russell, M.P. 

C. E. Schwann, M.P. 

T. W. Crombie, M.P. 

W. R. Cremer, M.P. 

T. P. O'Connor, M.P. 

W. Jones, M.P. 

Thomas Burt, M.P. 

John Burns, M.P. 

Sir John Brunner, Bart., M.P. 

J. C. Wason, M.P. 

Louis Sinclair, M.P. 

Hy. J. C. Cust, M.P. 

The Rt. Hon. R. B. Haldane, 

K.C, M.P. 
The Rt. Hon. Sir J. Gorst, 

M.P. 

Etc. 



Sir Wm. Wedderburn, Bart., 

M.P. 
J. Walton, M.P. 
The Rt. Hon. H. J. Gladstone, 

M.P. 
H. S. Cautley, M.P. 
R. H. Barron, M.P. 
Alexander Ure, K.C, M.P. 
Sir A. N. Agnew, Bart., M.P. 
G. Macrae, M.P. 
G. M. Brown, M.P. 
Thos. Shaw, K.C, M.P. 
The Rt. Hon. H. H. Asquith, 

K.C, M.P. 
Sir Wm. Hy. Houldsworth, 

Bart., M.P. 
Sir E. A. Sassoon, Bart., 

M.P. 
Lord Edmund Fitzmaurice, 

M.P. 
H. S. Samuel, M.P. 
Sir J. Fergusson, Bart., M.P. 
Sir Thos. Wrightson, Bart., 

M.P. 
Sir Chas. M. Palmer, Bart., 

M.P. 
E. Robertson, M.P. 
G. Toulmin, M.P. 
etc. 



T.Y. 



353 



A A 



APPENDICES 



VIII 



Text of Anglo-French Treaty of Arbitration 
(October 14, 1903). 

Le Gouvernement de la Republique francaise et le Gouverne- 
ment de Sa Majeste britannique, signataires de la Convention 
pour le reglement pacifique des conflits internationaux, conclue 
a La Haye, le 29 juillet 1899 ; 

Considerant que, par l'article 19 de cette Convention, les 
hautes parties contractantes se sont reserve de conclure des 
accords en vue du recours a l'arbitage dans tous les cas 
qu'elles jugeront possible de lui soumettre. 

Ont autorise les soussignes a arreter les dispositions 
suivantes : 

Article i er . — Les diiferends d'ordre juridique ou relatifs a 
Interpretation des traites existant entre les deux parties 
contractantes qui viendraient a se produire entre elles et 
qui n'auraient pu etre regies par la voie diplomatique, seront 
soumis a la Cour permanente d'arbitrage etablie par la con- 
vention du 29 juillet 1899 a La Haye, a la condition, toutefois, 
qu'ils ne mettent en cause ni les interets vitaux, ni l'indepen- 
dance ou l'honneur des deux Etats contractants et qu'ils ne 
touchent pas aux interets de tierces puissances. 

Art. 2. — Dans chaque cas particulier, les hautes parties 
contractantes, avant de s'adresser a la Cour permanente 
d'arbitrage, signeront un compromis special determinant 
nettement l'objet du litige, l'etendue des pouvoirs des arbitres 
et les details a observer en ce qui concerne la constitution du 
tribunal arbitral et la procedure. 

Art. 3. — Le present arrangement est conclu pour une 
duree de cinq annees, a partir du jour de la signature. 

Fait a Londres, en double exemplaire, le 14 Octobre 1903. 

Paul Cambon. 
Lansdowne. 



354 



APPENDICES 



IX 

Letter from Lord Lyons to Lord Granville on 
the Situation in 1884. 1 

Paris, June 3, 1884. 

My dear Granville, — I sent Lord Hartington your letter 
yesterday morning, and I had a long visit from him in the 
afternoon. 

As matters stand, what seems to be most to be dreaded 
with a view to our relations with France is a vote of the House 
of Commons censuring an arrangement made by Her Majesty's 
Government with the French Government. Such a vote, and 
the debate by which it would be preceded, would, I cannot 
but fear, have a truly lamentable effect. 

I understand that Jules Ferry is having a memorandum 
on the finances of Egypt drawn up by Blignieres, and that it 
will dispute the accuracy of Mr. Childers' information, and 
represent that the finances were in a flourishing condition, 
and that there were surpluses even during Arabi's rebellion, 
up to the time at which England took the thing in hand. The 
memorandum will probably deny there being any necessity 
for reducing the interest of the debt, if the finances be properly 
managed. 

I do not know whether such a reason will be assigned to us, 
in fact, it seems that the French object to any large loan being 
guaranteed by England, on account of the lien, so to speak, 
which it would give England upon Egypt. The French would 
prefer a simple fresh issue of United Stock. 

In the meantime the French bondholders are bestirring 
themselves, and protesting against any arrangement being 
made without their being consulted. 

Jules Ferry, however, himself thinks little of any other 
consideration in comparison with the political success which 
it would be to him to give France again a political footing in 
Egypt, and, as a means to this, to get a time fixed for the 
departure of our troops. I do not think he is afraid of much 
disapproval here of his counter-concession, the engagement 
that French troops shall not enter Egypt either on the depar- 

1 From " Life of Lord Granville," by Lord Edmund Fitzmaurice, Vol. II., 
p. 332. Longmans & Co. 

355 AA2 



APPENDICES 

ture of the English troops or afterwards. Unless the engage- 
ment were very formally made, and very peculiarly and 
stringently worded, it would be felt that it did not amount to 
much ; for, though it would preclude the occupation of Egypt 
by the French to preserve order and promote reforms in the 
same way as we occupy the country now, it would not be 
interpreted here as preventing France from using force to 
avenge an insult or protect distinct French interests, in cases 
which would constitute a casus belli as regarded any ordinary 
country. 

I do not quite understand the exact position in which 
stands the suggestion that the financial questions should be 
first settled by England with the several Powers separately, 
and then a Conference be held for a day or two only to ratify 
what had already been settled. Does this afford an opening 
for purely financial negotiations, and admit for the dropping 
of the French political proposals, which appear to be so 
unpopular in England ? I believe Jules Ferry is in some 
tribulation about the difficulties his proposals have met with 
in England, and is half inclined to be sorry he had made them 
so strong, though I doubt whether Waddington has made him 
fully aware of the violence of the opposition they encounter 
in England. 

Generally speaking, I am very unhappy about the growing 
ill-will between France and England which exists on both sides 
of the Channel. It is not that I suppose that France has any 
deliberate intention of going to war with us. But the two 
nations come into contact in every part of the globe. In 
every part of it questions arise which, in the present state of 
feeling, excite mutual suspicion and irritation. Who can say 
when and where, in this state of things, some local events may 
not produce a serious quarrel, or some high-handed proceed- 
ings of hot-headed officials occasion an actual collision ? 

Yours sincerely, 

Lyons. 

X 

M. Hanotaux on British Diplomacy. 1 

Le negociateur anglais est solide, d'aplomb et plein de sens ; 
il est extremement prudent et, visiblement, tenu de court 
par la chaine du Foreign Office. La marche du negociateur 

1 "Fachoda,"par Gabriel Hanotaux, p. 85. Paris: Ernest Flammarion. 

356 



APPENDICES 

francais est plus capricieuse, parce qu'il cherche les raisons 
generales ; un idealisme vague le tourmente assez inopportune- 
ment. Le negociateur francais veut convaincre tandis que 
le negociateur anglais se contente de vaincre. Dans les 
pourparlers, des preliminaires, parfois verbeux d'un cote, 
parfois contraints et embarrasses de l'autre, sont souvent une 
cause de malentendus. 

Les methodes different et les langues plus encore. On ne 
s'imagine pas a quel point la dissemblance fondamentale des 
deux idiomes trouble le jeu. C'est " la categorie verbale " 
qui n'est pas la meme. Dans les traductions les mieux faites, 
les mots ne s'ajustent pas. Meme quand les interlocuteurs 
savent les deux langues, leurs pensees ne se recouvrent pas 
tou jours exactement. Les mots ne sonnent pas, aux oreilles 
differentes, le meme son ; ils servent difficilement de monnaie 
d'echange. 

La langue anglaise est pleine, directe, sans condescendance ; 
elle affirme, elle n'explique pas, C'est une langue d'infinitifs ; 
le sujet et le verbe se confondent, c'est-a-dire le mobile et 
l'acte ; elle ne distingue pas, ne nuance pas ; elle frappe. 
J'admire beaucoup les lettres des hommes d'affaires anglais ; 
elles sont pleines de sue : le necessaire est dit, rien que le 
necessaire. Mais leur technicite un peu fruste se prete 
souvent a des interpretations diverses, parfois entre les 
nationaux ; et, si les interets s'en melent, il arrive qu'elle 
facilite, meme de bonne foi, des retraites surprenantes. La 
langue anglaise est une personne autoritaire un peu bourrue, 
qui parle par interjections et veut qu'on la comprenne a 
demi-mot. 

Le diplomate britannique a, dans la negociation, une 
superiorite dont il use, non sans une certaine hauteur ; la 
fermete des vues qui tient a la stabilite gouvernementale. 
Cette unite admirable que forme l'histoire de l'Angleterre 
depuis deux siecles, donne, au moindre des insulaires, une 
foi en la superiorite de sa race, une certitude du succes, qui 
s'etonne, d'une facon quelquefois amusante, de la fermete 
et du droit inverses de ses adversaires. Trop poli et humain 
pour faire sentir cette nuance, le diplomate anglais renferme 
son impression en soi-meme : mais elle perce dans un regard, 
un geste, un demi-sourire qui avertit et met en garde. Sous 
cette ironie raffinee, le bluff est aux aguets. 

En revanche, personne n'apprecie, comme 1' Anglais, les 
affaires bien menees, les positions solidement prises, les 
realites positives. Et puis, la personne compte beaucoup 

357 



APPENDICES 

aupres de ces personnalites fortes. J'ai obtenu des resultats 
imprevus en presentant subitement au cours d'une negociation 
Vhomme dufait ; il n'etait pas besoin qu'il parlat ; sa presence 
suffisait. La responsabilite est, aux yeux de ces maitres 
hommes que sont les Anglais, une grande maitresse et une 
grande autorite. 

Sans m'appesantir sur ces observations qui ont toujours 
quelque chose de particulier et d'imprecis, je conclus en 
rappelant, qu'avec les Anglais, il faut toujours traiter, mais 
toujours agir ; saisir et nouer promptement ; en tout cas, ne 
jamais perdre le contact, s'expliquer, insister, y revenir pour 
etre assure qu'on est bien compris, marcher sans detour et 
sans feinte, etre exact pour etre fidele et compter sur la 
fidelite dans l'exactitude. 

Par suite des circonstances, tenant, sans doute, a la hate 
de la vie publique en France pendant la periode de fondation 
de la Troisieme Republique, ces tractations, si utiles, avec la 
puissance voisine, avaient ete, depuis longtemps, negligees. 
On ne " causait " plus. Les motifs de dissentiment se 
multipliaient, les malentendus s'aggravaient dans l'echange 
pedantesque de notes de chancelleries, quand les visees 
coloniales francaises et le reveil de l'Imperialisme anglais, 
agitant soudain tous les vieux litiges, creerent, partout, un 
etat d'irritation ou de " friction " auquel il fallait parer, sous 
peine d'exposer les relations cordiales des deux pays au caprice 
des evenements. 

Amener l'Angleterre a negocier ; negocier de bonne foi, 
avec la volonte arretee de soutenir fermement les revendi- 
cations francaises, mais aussi de sacrifier beaucoup a l'entente ; 
enfermer le partenaire dans un cercle de droits evidents et 
de faits precis ; se proposer pour but une liquidation generale, 
compensant, au besoin, les solutions l'une par l'autre ; 
travailler, par cette liquidation, a l'union des deux politiques 
sur un pied d'honneur reciproque, et de dignite equitable, 
telle fut la methode adoptee, tel fut le but poursuivi par la 
France avec une persistance qui ne fut pas sans causer un 
certain embarras chez la partie adverse. 

Pour l'Angleterre, consentir a discuter, c'etait se limiter. 



358 



APPENDICES 
XI 



Papers Relating to the Franco-Scottish Society 
and the Scots College in Paris. 

Proposed Constitution of the Franco-Scottish 
Society. 1 

i. The name of the Society shall be " The Franco-Scottish 
Society." 

Objects. 

2. The objects of the Society shall be : 

(a) The promotion of historical research as regards the 

relations between France and Scotland and as regards 
the social and intellectual influence of either country 
upon the other. 

(b) The promotion of study in the Universities of either 

country by students of the other. 

3. As soon as practicable a sum shall be devoted to the 
creation of scholarships, special courses of lectures, and the 
hiring or purchase of premises in which to house Scottish 
students in Paris, and supply them with the means of study 
and of acquiring the French language, as here-in-after pro- 
vided. (See Art. 38). 

4. A further sum shall as soon as practicable be devoted to 
the creation of a chair of Franco-Scottish History to be held 
for two years, the tenant thereof to deliver his lectures in 
Edinburgh and in Paris. The Executive Committee shall not 
be restricted in their selection to savants of Scotch or French 
nationality. Nor need the lectures relate exclusively to 
Franco-Scottish relations provided they deal with Scottish 
history when delivered in France or with French history when 
delivered in Scotland. 

Membership. 

5. The Society shall consist of Fellows (membres effectifs) 
and Associates. 

Fellows are such as are elected by a majority of the Execu- 
tive Committee, who shall as far as possible restrict the 
election to persons occupying academic functions or such as 

1 Drafted by the author in 1894, and submitted at a meeting in the Court 
Room of Edinburgh University. 

359 



APPENDICES 

by their position or attainments can render service to the 
Society. 

Any student, Professor or teacher of any University, College 
or public school, or person interested in the work of the 
Society shall be elegible for admission by the Committee as 
an Associate. 

6. It shall be an indispensable title to election as either 
Fellow or Associate that the candidate shall be of Scotch or 
French origin or descent. Present or past professors in 
Scottish Universities and foreign associates and corresponding . 
members of the French Institute are also eligible. Others can 
be elected as Adherents. 

Founders. 

7. The following Fellows, Associates and Adherents, as 
promoters and founders of a Society whose sole object is the 
revival of the historic friendship of two countries which have 
hand in hand led the way in the conquests of science, literature, 
and philosophy, shall be inscribed as such upon the diploma 
of Fellowship : 

If it should ever be possible to enter into possession of 
the old Scots College in Paris, a marble tablet recording the 
names of the aforesaid founders shall be affixed in the chapel 
thereof. 

Officers. - 

8. There shall be two Honorary Presidents, two acting 
Presidents, six Vice-Presidents, two Treasurers, four Secre- 
taries, to be respectively half Scottish and half French. 

9. The Scottish and French Fellows shall respectively elect 
the officers of their own nationality. 

10. The above officers shall form the Executive Committee. 

Management. 

11. The Executive Committee shall have the general 
management of the affairs of the Society ; the Presiding 
Member at any meeting to have a casting-vote in case of an 
equal division ; four Members present to form a quorum. 
The office-bearer highest in rank shall preside, priority to be 
given to the member of the nation in which the meeting is 
held. 

12. The Executive Committee shall meet during the 
sessions of the annual conference only, but any decision as to 
which they are all agreed shall be valid at all times. 

360 



APPENDICES 

Local Committees. 

13. There shall be a Scottish Committee anda French 
Committee. These shall respectively have exclusive charge 
of their own establishments ; they shall meet as they them- 
selves severally decide, and shall frame their own rules. 

14. A French Fellow or Associate resident in Scotland shall 
be elected by the French Fellows to attend meetings of the 
Scottish Committee when invited and similarly a Scottish 
Fellow or Associate shall be elected by the Scottish Fellows 
to attend meetings of the French Committee when invited. 

Conferences. 

15. A Conference of the Society shall be held every year 
alternately in France and in Scotland, the first to be held in 
Paris at Easter, 1896. 

16. After each Annual Conference its transactions shall t>e 
published in a volume under the direction of the Secretaries 
of the Executive Committee. 

17. The direction of each Conference shall be in the hands 
of the Officers for the time being of the Country in which it 
shall be held. 

Language. 

18. The discussions can be carried on indiscriminately in 
French and in English ; the papers read at Conferences shall 
be in either language as shall suit the writers supplying them ; 
the official details to be in the language of the country in 
which the Conference is held. These rules shall be printed 
in both languages. 

Contributions and Expenditure. 

19. Each Fellow shall pay to the Treasurer of his nationality 
(see Art. 8) the annual sum of [z — 50 fr. 

The subscription for Associates and Adherents shall be 

I 1 = 2 5 fr - 

Any donor of upwards of £20 = 500 fr. shall be a life 

member either as Fellow, Associate or Adherent. 

20. No expenditure or liability shall be incurred beyond the 
amount of the funds in the hands of the Treasurer. 

Scots College Foundation. 

21. As soon as practicable a suitable building shall be rented 
in Paris until it is possible to acquire the old building so-called. 

361 



APPENDICES 

22. The said building shall be adapted to lodge as many- 
scholars as there shall be scholarships, and as many hospitants 
as it shall be possible to accommodate. 

Scholars shall pay no rent. Hospitants shall pay such rent 
as the Committee shall fix. 

23. Any student of the Scottish Universities who shall have 
taken a degree thereat shall be eligible to compete for a 
scholarship. 

24. For the purpose of the competition to one, at least, of 
the scholarships, the Scottish Committee shall appoint some 
question or subject of Scottish history ; the candidate whose 
essay or essays shall be adjudged best shall be appointed to 
the vacancy for the time being. 

For the purpose of the other scholarships, in the order of 
their creation, the Committee may appoint a subject in 
science, medicine, law, arts and literature, fine arts and 
music, as the donor shall direct, the idea being to promote 
study in all branches of research and inquiry. 

25. The History scholarship shall be tenable for one year. 
If, at expiry thereof, the candidate shall have submitted work 
considered satisfactory by the Scottish Committee, the latter 
may continue the scholarship for another year and similarly 
to a third, but no longer. 

The other scholarships shall be tenable from May 1st to 
end of July. The Committee may, in case the holder should 
do original work to their satisfaction, extend the tenure of 
the scholarship to a whole year. 

26. Holders for the time being of scholarships shall be 
entitled " Scots Scholars." The holder of the History scholar- 
ship shall be distinguished from the others as " The Scots 
Scholar." 

27. Each scholarship shall, where practicable, bear the 
name of its founder. 

28. The management of the College shall be in the hands of 
the " Scots Scholars " for the time being. They shall, how- 
ever, have no power to spend money except in so far as the 
Committee or their delegate may sanction or direct. 

29. The Committee may appoint a local delegate as 
" Proctor " of the College. He shall preside at the meetings 
of the Scholars and act as Treasurer of the College. 

30. The Scholars may make such arrangements as they may 
deem fit, subject to the approval of the Committee or Proctor, 
in regard to meals in College ; but only such- residents therein 
as shall subscribe to such arrangements shall be bound thereby. 

362 



APPENDICES 

31. Any students, whether graduates or not of the Scottish 
Universities, can be admitted on paying the proper fees in 
advance as a hospitant, but a graduate shall have preference 
ceteris -paribus over an undergraduate. 

32. Applications to be admitted as a hospitant shall be 
lodged with the Committee, who shall have discretion to admit 
or not without any need of explanation. 

33. Hospitants shall have no voice in the government of the 
College. 

34. Nothing in these rules shall prevent a hospitant from 
competing for a scholarship or from holding it upon the same 
conditions as any other scholar. 

35. Members of the Society can be received where there is 
room as residents, but from May 1st to end of July only for a 
period not exceeding one month, unless there still be room at 
expiry thereof, whereupon such Members can renew their 
occupation. 

36. Nothing in these Articles shall prevent the creation of 
scholarships guaranteed by donors for a certain number of 
years only. Thus a donor may undertake to pay an annual 
sum for, say, 3, 5, or 10 years to favour the study of some 
special subject or subjects. In such a case the Committee 
can only accept the donation upon the donor covering the 
amount by a capital sum to be vested in the Scottish Com- 
mittee as trustees for the duration of the scholarship. 

Nor shall anything herein prevent any donor from offering, 
through the Committee, a sum of money as a prize, provided 
always that such a prize be connected with the objects of the 
Franco-Scottish Society. 

37. So soon as the Scots College shall have premises of its 
own the Scottish Committee shall have power to reserve 
rooms therein for the secretarial work of the Committee, the 
formation of a library and the preservation of MSS., and to 
make all such provisions in the interest of the Society generally 
as they may think fit. 

Special Lectures, 

38. A series of special lectures shall be organised in connec- 
tion with the foundation, to be delivered in Paris during the 
months of May, June and July. They shall be gratuitous 
for all tenants of the Scots College. 

The schedule of these lectures shall be published at the 
Scottish Universities not later than the end of the month of 

363 



APPENDICES 

February, and it shall, as far as possible, set out the contents 
thereof. 

One such course of lectures shall be devoted to instruction 
in the French language. 

Temporary Provisions. 

39. If the funds available for the College shall not at once 
be of sufficient amount to carry out the above provisions, the 
order of the application of the funds obtained shall be, as far 
as practicable, as follows : — 

(a) Creation of the History Scholarship {see Arts. 4 and 5) 

to the extent of the available funds, the annual sum 
to be devoted to such scholarship not to exceed .£50 
per annum (saving always special conditions made by 
a donor), until the other two objects [see (b) & (c)~\ 
have been attained. 

(b) Institution of special courses of lectures {see Art. 38), 

the first to be that for instruction in the French 
language. 
{c) Creation of other scholarships. 

As soon as the funds devoted to scholarships shall suffice, 
such scholarships shall become residential, and the funds 
shall be applied to the housing of the Scots College as herein 
created. Until then, the holders of scholarships shall be 
lodged at pensions, a list of which shall be supplied to the 
student. 

Scholars shall receive no money direct until the scholar- 
ships become residential, in which case the amount of each 
scholarship which shall be considered as payment for lodging 
shall be £2 a month. The rest shall be applied to sustenance 
as the Scottish Committee shall decide. 

Amendment of Rides. 

40. These rules can only be amended at the Annual Con- 
ference and by a vote of two thirds of the Fellows present, sixty 
clear days previous notice of any motion for such purpose 
having been given. 



364 



APPENDICES 



DRAFT STATEMENT OF HISTORY SIDE. 

-L 



Subscriptions, no 

Fellows at £2 . . . . 220 

Subscriptions, no Asso- 
ciates and Adherents 
at £1 . . .. ..no 



^33° 



Rent of Premises, Edin- 
burgh . . . . 30 
Rent of Premises, Paris 40 
Printing- of Annual Re- 



port 


. 100 


Stationery, Printin 


o- 


Notices, etc. . . 


12 


Postages 


2 


Clerk, Edinburgh 


• 50 


Clerk, Paris 


• 50 


Expenses of Conferenc 


:e 10 


Sundries 


■ 30 




£324 


Balance 


. 6 




£330 



Estimates. 
Expenditure Capitalized at 3%. 



Capital. 
I 

1,666 

333 
666 
666 



1. History Scholarship of £50 

2. Lectureship in Paris — 

(a) French language ; 24 to 36 lectures for -£10 

(b) Other lectures at -£20 each course 

3. Other Scholarships of £20 each 

4. Cost of Provisional House, ^360 per annum, with- 

out deducting sums to be paid by Non-Scholars 

for occupation . . . . . . . . . . 12,000 

5. Cost of Scots College (maximum) . . . . . . 16.000 

Nota bene. — The Scots College could be arranged so 
that a portion of it might be let. The market value of 
the property is about £13,000 ; present rent (10,000 f.) 
is to be raised on expiration of present lease to 12,000 f. 

Some of the money might be obtained on mortgage. 

6. International Lectureship in Franco-Scottish 

History, £100 per annum, including Travelling 
Expenses 3,333 

365 



APPENDICES 



On The Scots College in Paris. 1 

The meeting of Scotsmen to be held, as already announced 
in The Times, at the University Court-room in Edinburgh 
to-morrow, for the constitution of a Franco-Scottish Historical 
Society will remind their fellow countrymen south of the 
Tweed that Scottish and English history ran in very different 
channels until the two countries became united under one 
Sovereign, and their " external " polity thus was made 
identical. Three centuries of constant contact, however, 
have not sufficed to obliterate Scottish characteristics. The 
North British subjects of Her Majesty as much as ever stand 
out as a people apart. Nor does any transplanting of the 
stock impair its vitality. Its offshoots are so scattered that 
possibly there are as many Scots abroad as at home. Yet 
they remain, wherever they be, distinct in character, distinct 
in their warm attachment to everything that comes from their 
Northern home, and curiously knit together in a sort of free- 
masonry in which the accent does not count for nothing. 

On the Continent the Scot's position was unique. He has 
had his share in the history of most Northern nations, and in 
his time has exercised no little influence in their intellectual 
development. The insularity of the perhaps more masculine 
and independent Englishman was no quality of the Scot of 
yore, and in his intercourse with the foreigner he had, and 
probably still has, a readier apprehension than the Southerner 
of the foreign point of view. In France one quality at least 
of the Scot has passed into the current phraseology, and a 
sentimental interest in things Scottish is characteristic of 
a nation who now return with kindliness to the historical relics 
which were hurried with everything else at the Revolution to 
destruction. It is, therefore, easy to understand that the idea of 
a Franco-Scottish Society, though its purposes may be purely 
scientific, should commend itself to a section of Frenchmen. 

On the other hand, the Scottish Universities, Scots Law, 
and Scottish institutions generally, owe most of their 
peculiarities, as compared with English institutions, to 
French influence. The Scottish dialect contains many words 
of French origin, for which the English equivalents are 
Germanic, and a traditional habit of learning the French 
language and passing a part of student life in France continued 

1 Written by the author, and published in The Times of October 28, 1895. 

366 



APPENDICES 

in practice among Scottish families to a comparatively recent 
period ; in fact, until the counter tendency sprang up in 
the course of the last half-century of relying for knowledge 
and its methodical pursuit rather on the German than the 
French professor. It is thus natural enough that a movement 
to revive a historic and long-continued connection should 
touch a responding note in Scottish sentiment. 

The Scots College in Paris is the sole outward survival of 
the ancient connection. It is a square, prosaic building in the 
Rue Cardinal Lemoyne, a street at the back of the Pantheon. 
Over the large doorway may be read in a clean-cut inscription, 

College 
des 
Escossois. 
Inside are an imposing wooden staircase, a chapel with a 
number of memorial tablets, some furniture bearing the 
Scottish arms, and paintings of the Old and Young Pretenders. 
Under the present tenant of the building, M. Grousset, who, 
by the way, is always ready to show the place to visitors, it 
serves as an institution for preparing French boys for the 
University entrance examination. It is not generally known 
that the rent paid by M. Grousset, as well as that of a farm 
outside Paris which belonged to the college, is applied to defray- 
ing the expenses of a number of Scottish students of Catholic 
theology at the seminary of St. Sulpice, and that these students 
are selected by the Catholic Bishops of Scotland. The origin 
of the college dates back to the heroic period of Robert Bruce. 
In the beginning of the fourteenth century, we are told, David, 
Bishop of Moray, was sent by the Scots King to secure or 
strengthen the French alliance, which he did by signing a 
treaty at Corbeil. This Bishop founded certain stipends for 
the encouragement of Scottish students. The Scots had as 
yet no University of their own, and the Archbishop's action 
was, no doubt, a counterblast to the then recently-founded 
Balliol College at Oxford. Shortly afterwards (in 1326) the 
Scots College came into corporate existence under a charter 
of Philip le Bel. As St. Andrews, the oldest Scottish Univer- 
sity, was founded only in 141 1, and on the model of the 
University of Paris, the Scots College, as the older corporation, 
was practically the starting-point of independent higher 
education for Scotsmen. After the Reformation the college 
remained Roman Catholic, and became the headquarters of 
Scottish Catholicism, and, later on, of Scottish Jacobites. 
The original building was in the Rue des Amandiers, and it 

367 



APPENDICES 

is significant that a neighbouring street was called Rue 
d'Ecosse, as if Scots thereabouts had congregated. 

In the second half of the seventeenth century the college 
was removed to the " more commodious " present building, as 
a memorial tablet to the then principal, Robert Barclay, who 
carried out the change, records. At the Revolution the 
college and its revenues were treated as those of religious 
communities and appropriated by the State, and during the 
Terror the college was used as a house of detention. An eye- 
witness has related that the movable property of the college 
was then disposed of, and valuable manuscripts sold as waste 
paper or burnt. Among the manuscripts he described were 
correspondence of James II. and the Pretenders and others 
with their friends in England and the cipher key to it. This 
eye-witness was copying some passages when the documents 
were seized by the gaoler. They have disappeared, and may 
have been burnt with the rest. It was owing to representa- 
tions of the then British Minister, Lord Robert Fitzgerald, 
that the French Government consented to treat the college 
as educational, suivant la destination des fondateurs. Later 
on it underwent a series of manipulations. First, all the 
Scottish and Irish colleges in France were united under one 
administrator ; then the English colleges were added, and 
eventually it was again detached ; but how its revenues at 
length come to be converted into stipends for the education 
for the Scottish priesthood instead of for the education of 
Scotsmen generally, or, at least, of Scottish Catholics generally, 
is not clear from the sources of information we have been able 
to consult. 

Many eminent Scotsmen have been students or inmates of 
the Scots College. Among these, curiously enough, Barclay 
the Quaker, a Protestant son of one of Gustavus Adolphus's 
Scottish captains, received the more important part of his 
education there. Among other Protestants who were students 
of the college were Mair and Buchanan. That its Catholicism, 
moreover, had a rather Liberal tendency is shown by the fact 
that it was always suspected at Rome of being friendly to 
Jansenism. Indeed, the Paris Nuncio towards the middle 
of the last century denounced the College as a very sink of 
Jansenism, and applied himself in particular to relating the 
evil done by Thomas Innes, who had been Prefect of Studies 
at the college. Thomas Innes, it will be remembered, was 
the author of the well-known " Critical Essay on the Early 
Inhabitants of Scotland." 

368 



APPENDICES 

It is clearly worth while to restore so interesting a historical 
memorial to its ancient uses, modified, of course, in accordance 
with the spirit of the age, and if the new Society succeeds in 
purchasing the college and converting it back to a house of 
study for Scottish students it will amply justify its existence. 

3- 

Extracts from Reports on the Movement which led to 
the Formation of the Franco-Scottish Society. 1 

" This movement had hitherto been mainly academic, but 
many of its supporters felt that it ought to have a wider 
basis. They, therefore, gladly joined Mr. Thomas Barclay, 
a Scotsman resident in Paris, and member of the Societe 
Historique, in his efforts to form a Franco-Scottish Society 
for the joint promotion of historical research respecting the 
ancient alliance between Scotland and France and its con- 
tinuing influence. Many, not actively connected with 
Universities, were interested in the revival of that ancient 
league of friendship which for so many years bound Scot and 
Frenchman together, and hence the Franco-Scottish Society. 
Inter-University relations must always have an important 
position in the Society's programme, but they must not 
exclude other work, such as promoting historical research 
concerning the ancient relations between the two countries, 
and concerning their social and general influence upon one 
another, which is no less valuable. 

"On October 18, 1895, a letter was issued, signed by Lord 
Reay, Sheriff Mackay, Messrs. Barclay and Grant, and 
Professors Kirkpatrick, Ramsay, Geddes, and Burnet, calling 
a meeting of those interested in forming " an association which 
should have for its object the strengthening of the friendly 
relations which have at various periods existed between 
France and Scotland." In response to this invitation over 
forty ladies and gentlemen met, in the Court Room of the 
University of Edinburgh, on the afternoon of October 29. 
Among those present were Lord Reay, Principal Sir William 
Muir ; Professors Ferguson, Laurie, Geddes and Burnet ; 
Messrs. Barclay, E. J. G. Mackay, Rutherford, W. K. Dickson, 
Scott Dalgleish, Grant Ogilvie, Balfour Paul, A. A. Gordon, 
Goodchild, J. S. Mackay, Dr. Stodart Walker, Miss Flora 
Stevenson, and Miss Jane Hay. 

1 Transactions of the Franco-Scottish Society (1897), p. 230. 
T.Y. 369 B B 



APPENDICES 

" Sir William Muir, Principal of Edinburgh University, moved 
that Lord Reay take the chair. Lord Reay then referred 
to the circular which had been issued calling the meeting, and 
pointed out that the object of the proposed Society was to 
revive the traditional cordiality between France and Scotland. 
Scottish students, he said, had never lost the habit of frequent- 
ing foreign Universities ; and, as evidence of the reciprocity 
of French students, he mentioned that fifteen attended the 
last Edinburgh Summer Meeting. But the Society, besides 
encouraging the international exchange of students, aimed 
at publishing historical records dealing with both France and 
Scotland. There were also other objects in view, such as 
the restoration of the old Scots College in Paris to a popular 
and useful position ; the founding of bursaries, and particu- 
larly of one to be devoted to historical research. 

Mr. Thomas Barclay then read an interesting paper, giving 
a sketch of the history of the old Scots College in Paris ; and 
he laid upon the table letters from the heads of the great 
centres of higher education in Paris, and from other eminent 
Frenchmen and several Scotsmen, indicating their general 
desire for the establishment of a Society of this kind. 



The funds necessary for the realisation of the project in 
its entirety not having been obtained, it was abandoned, and 
at the first meeting of the Society in Paris in 1895 " Mr. 
Thomas Barclay read the draft constitution, which he proposed 
should be submitted by the Scottish Branch to that of the 
French for its approval. A discussion took place over the 
terms of some of the proposed rules, and a few alterations were 
made on the draft," 1 which was adopted in the following 
form : — 

" Name. — 1. The name of the Society shall be The Franco- 
Scottish Society. It shall be composed of a French and 
a Scottish Branch. 

"Membership. — 2. The membership shall include: (a) 
Frenchmen and Scotsmen and their descendants ; (b) 
Graduates of French and Scottish Universities, or any others 
who hold official positions in them ; (c) Such other persons 
as may be admitted on account of their interest in the 
objects of the Society. 

1 Transactions (1897), p. 232, 

37° 



APPENDICES 

"Objects. — 3. The objects of the Society will be: {a) To 
bring the Universities of the two countries into connection 
with each other by encouraging interchange of students ; (b) 
To bring about intercourse between their members ; (c) To 
promote historical research concerning the ancient relations 
between the two countries ; (d) In general, by periodical meet- 
ings held in France and Scotland, and all other means, to 
renew, as far as possible, the bonds of sympathy between the 
two countries 

" Management. — 4. The two Branches of the Society shall 
have their separate organisations, and shall deal with their 
funds independently of each other. 

"Meetings. — 5. The periodical meetings shall be managed 
by the Branch in whose country they are held." 



On the Franco-Scottish Society's Meeting in 
Edinburgh. 

To the Editor of " The Times?' 1 

Sir, — On Monday next, in Edinburgh, begins the second 
annual meeting of this Society. Some sixty French members 
have announced their intention of being present. They 
include M. Greard, Rector of the Paris University ; Professor 
Lavisse, the leading French historian ; Professor Croiset, 
the eminent Hellenist ; the Comte de Franqueville, who has 
been called the French Gneist of British institutions ; Pro- 
fessors Weiss, of the Paris School of Law, and Derenbourg, 
of the Ecole des Hautes Etudes ; M. Paul Meyer, Director 
of the French Official Archives ; Dr. Duclaux, the head of 
the Pasteur Institute ; Professor Boutroux, of the Faculte 
des Lettres ; Professor Bonet-Maury, of the Faculte 
Protestante de Theologie ; Professor Gide, and many other 
distinguished representatives of French learning, philosophy, 
and science. So important a gathering of Frenchmen in 
our northern capital of any kind would be a fact of importance. 
Its significance, however, is singularly enhanced by the objects 
which thus bring Scotsmen and Frenchmen together. 

Scotland appeals to the French imagination. Whether 
the ancient alliance, a unique fact in history of two peoples 
remaining for several centuries in the closest bonds of union, 

1 Reprinted from The Times of July 12, 1897. 

371 B B 2 



APPENDICES 

or the halo which surrounds the tragic career of Mary Queen 
of Scots, or the romantic episodes of Scott's novels, dear to 
all the youth of France for a century past, have, the one or 
the other, had more to do with this interest and affection 
for Scotland it would be punctilious to inquire. But, on the 
side of Scotland, it is certain her laws, her Universities, her 
institutions, and her language, all bear witness to her debts 
to France, and until three-quarters of a century ago, the habit 
still lingered among Scottish families of giving their sons 
their final intellectual brush at the Paris higher schools. 
Since then Germany has stolen away the heart of the Scottish 
student. The crowd of brilliant scholars and searchers who 
gave her Universities half a century of unwonted brilliancy 
threw France into the shade for a time. But only for a time ; 
of late years her schools have again burst into all their old 
eclat, and never was the number of foreign students in her 
lecture rooms greater than at present. Under the third 
Republic the Universities, moreover, are recovering a salutary 
independence from central government which gives promise 
of a still greater intellectual expansion. 

Some years ago an attempt was made at St. Andrews and 
Edinburgh to encourage Scottish students to visit the French 
as well as the German Universities. 

It was not, however, till 1895, when the idea of a Franco- 
Scottish Historical Society (an idea which had long been in 
a state of incubation among ray friends at the Societe 
Historique in Paris) took shape, that any real progress could 
be made. That Scottish students would be welcome at the 
French Universities went without saying, but to join in 
searching the records of five centuries of an allied national 
history was a foundation on which a Franco-Scottish Society, 
with a common object, could be built effectively. In France 
the proposal met with warm approval, and all the leading 
men of Paris in history, philosophy, and science gave it their 
unqualified support. 

In Scotland the support was, if possible, still warmer, and 
last year a large number of representative Scotsmen came to 
the inaugural meeting in Paris, where they were welcomed by 
the late M. Jules Simon, then President of the French section, 
and entertained at the Paris University with a hospitality 
which showed a truly sympathetic chord had been struck. 
The discussions were confined to the position of Greek in the 
University curriculum, and the academic teaching of what on 
the Continent are called the political sciences. The main 

372 



APPENDICES 

part of the programme, however, was the starting of the 
Society itself. It was constituted in two branches, a French 
and an English one, each to have exclusive control over its 
own organisation, each to have its own bye-laws, regulations, 
and publications, and each alternately to be the guests of the 
other. In fact, it was to be an alliance as of old. 

Next week it is the Scots who will entertain the French 
branch. 

The programme attests the progress made. The papers 
to be read by Professors Kirkpatrick, Ritchie, and Boutroux, 
Sir M. E. Grant Duff, Professors Sarolea, Crum-Brown, 
Ramsay, and Croiset, Dr. Duclaux, and the Abbe Charbonnel, 
Sheriff ^Eneas Mackay, Dr. Rowland Anderson, and Mr. 
Brander Hatt, include " French Influence in the Scottish 
Universities," " The Influence of Scottish Philosophy in 
France," "The Teaching of French Literature at the Scottish 
Universities," " Pasteur as the Founder of Stereo-Chemistry," 
" The Historical Connection between the Parliament of Paris 
and the Scottish Court of Session," " The History of the Scots 
College in Paris," and " French Influence on Scottish Archi- 
tecture." Such a list affords an idea of the variety of the 
subjects within the scope of the Society. 

Frenchmen have the art of making friends and respond 
frankly and joyously to advances they believe sincere. And 
no doubt the efforts which are being made to bring about an 
entente cordiale between Great Britain and France will be 
warmly appreciated and forwarded on the other side of the 
Channel ; all the sympathy of Scotsmen, just as much as that 
of Englishmen, will be with such a movement. I would, 
however, point out, if it is not already abundantly clear, that 
the Franco-Scottish Society is quite distinct from associations 
connected with any such movement. Its objects are purely 
academic and historical, and though it may have excellent 
results in promoting good feeling between the two countries, 
this, however desirable, will only be the accidental consequence 
of a movement devoid of any political object, colour, or design. 
Anybody who has acquaintance with France will see 
this from the fact that men of such different political hues 
as M. Casimir-Perier (President of the French branch), 
ex-President of the Republic, and Prince d'Arenberg (Vice- 
President of the French branch), M. de Franqueville, 
M. Melchior de Vogue, M. Ribot, and M. Hanotaux are 
associated in the same work. At home no such explanation 
is required ; we turn the key on politics when we leave the 

373 



APPENDICES 

Senate House and the constituents' meetings with a lighter 
hand than our neighbours. 

All the French visitors are to be received in the houses 
of Edinburgh families, and there is no lack of public entertain- 
ments, among the many of which are a ball to be given by 
the City of Edinburgh, a lunch offered by the Corporation 
of Stirling, a visit to St. Andrews by invitation of the 
University, and a lunch at Lord Lothian's beautiful seat of 
Newbattle Abbey. It is hoped the guests will return home- 
wards with the experience that Vhospitalite Ecossaise is not a 
vain word, as the French phrase it. 

It is perhaps anticipating to distribute praise before the 
meeting has begun, but the programme certainly does great 
credit to the organisers in Edinburgh, to its able and inde- 
fatigable Secretary, Mr. A. A. Gordon, and its Chairman, 
Lord Reay, whose tact, forethought, and administrative 
ability have been the pivot of the Society since its foundation. 
I am, Sir, your obedient Servant, 

Thomas Barclay. 

8th July. 



5- 

A speech delivered at the British Federation of branches 
of the Alliance /ran false, on May 12, 191 3, brings the subject 
down to date. The Scotsman reported it as follows : — 

A Plea for the Scots College. 

" At a banquet held in the Grand Hotel in the evening, 
tinder the auspices of the British Federation of the Alliance, 
Sir Thomas Barclay presided. About 100 ladies and gentle- 
men were present. The Chairman submitted the toasts of 
' The King ' and ' The Elected Sovereign of the French 
Republic,' followed by the singing of the ' Marseillaise.' 

" Sir Thomas Barclay gave the toast of the Alliance Fran- 
caise, and of the Federation of the Committees of that Alliance 
in this country. The Alliance Francaise, as its full title 
explained, was, he said, a body created for the purpose of 
propagating the French language abroad. It was based on 
the idea that peace, like war, had its victories. While other 
agencies were at work adding Dreadnoughts to their Navies 
and doubling their expenditure on armaments, the Alliance 
Francaise was quietly, but persistently, pushing forward its 

374 



APPENDICES 

battalions of peacemakers, who were spreading the knowledge 
of the French language into the remotest parts of the world, 
and extending the influence of French literature and of the 
French intellect wherever people thought. That there was 
a Federation of the Committees of the Alliance in this country 
showed how widespread its influence was. Recently, in 
Edinburgh, he had had an opportunity of testing the know- ' 
ledge of French at several of the public secondary schools, 
and he wished to express publicly his admiration for the 
excellent teaching and good results achieved in the Scottish 
capital. Unquestionably there was in this country of Scot- 
land a revival of the old interest in France, an interest which 
had for a time declined, but which was again becoming one 
of the factors of our modern Scottish intellectuality. That 
this meeting of the Federation should take place at 
St. Andrews, the oldest of our Scottish Universities, was a 
compliment to it which Sir Thomas felt sure was deeply 
appreciated. (Applause). 

The Scots College and St. Andrews. 

" The Scots College in Paris, he thought, might even be 
credited with being the medium through which the St. Andrews 
University came into existence. The Balliols, as they knew, 
were the minions of the King of England, and their policy was 
to promote the influence of England in Scotland. The elder 
Balliol founded Balliol College for that purpose. In those 
days Scotland was only able to maintain her independence 
against the vastly more powerful England by co-operation 
with France. Robert Bruce embodied that policy. He was 
not only a great general, but he was also a great statesman and 
diplomatist, and from his home in Dunfermline he worked 
out his scheme of redeeming his native country from its then 
oppressor, and in working it out he was not thinking of 
the immediate future, but of generations to come. It was 
he who conceived the idea of creating a College in Paris 
which would react against the influence of Balliol College at 
Oxford. That was the origin of the Scots College at Paris, 
where most of Scotland's worthies seemed to have been 
inoculated with that French culture and independence of 
thought which were fundamental in our Scottish mentality. 
Our jurists, who made Scottish law what it is, learned its 
principles in Paris, and from the French language borrowed 
even its terminology. There Scottish architects learned to 

375 



APPENDICES 

build both our palaces and our castles, and it was the Scots 
College which always loomed out as the place where the 
Scottish student would find a home among other students of 
his country and where he could obtain the knowledge and skill 
the Paris University could give him. The old building still 
existed behind the Pantheon and within a stone's-throw of 
the Sorbonne. It was not originally where it is now, but in 
one of those picturesque narrow streets of old Paris which the 
modern City Fathers had demolished to make way for less 
picturesque, less interesting, but more hygienic roadways. 
It dated, however, back some 250 years, and its chapel 
contained the memorial tablets of many Scotsmen who had 
taken refuge at the College in the troublous times which 
followed. Portraits of the old and young Pretenders belonged 
to the building, and the furniture of the refectory was 
decorated with the thistle, but the Scottish student was no 
longer there, and the old building was let to a coaching 
establishment, which had a lease of the building for a few 
years still to come. It might be ours again some day, and 
Scottish students might, in some not distant future, be flocking 
again to the Scots College to prosecute post-graduate research 
in all that vast range of subjects for which Paris stood pre- 
eminent in the world as the headquarters of all that enriched 
and beautified it and made life so amply worth living. 
(Applause.) 

Could the College be Recovered. 

" The French Government, as the Principal of that Uni- 
versity and those of the three other Scottish Universities 
knew, was ready to hand that College over to the Scottish 
people. The revenue from it was, at the present moment, 
paid over to the Roman Catholic Primate of Scotland for the 
education of students of Roman Catholic theology, and we 
did not propose to take advantage of the fact that that was 
due to an error made at the time of the French Restoration. 
The Scottish Roman Catholic students had had the benefit of 
that revenue for now nearly a century, and he and others were 
disposed to think that it was hardly worth while nowadays to 
submit the matter of whether the Scots College belonged to 
Scotland or to the Roman Catholics of Scotland to arbitration. 
The sum which was necessary to recover the Scots College 
for Scotland was about £16,000 to £20,000. The interest of 
this sum would go to the Scottish Roman Catholics, and it 

376 



APPENDICES 

might be a serious grievance if they were deprived of it. Sir 
Thomas said he visited Scotland in 1894 for the purpose of 
stirring up interest in the preservation of the Scots College, 
and the Franco-Scottish Society resulted. The idea was at 
that time, to raise the necessary money for the purchase of 
the College, but eighteen years had passed, and it had not 
vet been found. Nevertheless money had been found to 
create schools for post-graduate work in other countries and 
for remoter purposes than those which the revival of the old 
Scots College was capable of achieving. That France and 
Great Britain should have become the intimate and close 
friends they were at the present day rested not on any short- 
sighted idea of fighting a common enemy, but upon the greater 
and nobler idea that the two oldest champions of civilisation 
in Europe should see and understand the common work they 
could do for the promotion of their common patrimony of 
high ideals, intellectual, scientific, and social. (Applause.) 
The Alliance Francaise was doing magnificent work on its 
side. The Franco-Scottish Society was doing splendid work 
here in Scotland, the Entente Cordiale Society was doing 
splendid work in England, and there was only one thing 
still wanting, and that was a College in Paris for our post- 
graduate workers to enrich this country with all that France 
could give us in the perfection of our intellectual methods, 
in that great search for knowledge and truth which was the 
real test of any nation's value in history. He hoped the time 
would come when the Scottish Universities would be able to 
resume possession of their old College, and cited, as a sign of 
the times, that the University of Lille had just established in 
London an institute which was to serve a similar purpose to 
that University." (Applause.) 

XII 

Pledge and Rules of the International Brotherhood 

Alliance. 

(Fraternitas Inter Gentes.) 
Member's Pledge : — 

I hereby pledge myself to do what I can to promote good- 
will and friendly feeling between men of my own country 
and those of other nations. 

377 



APPENDICES 



Rules. 



i. Character. — This Brotherhood is non-political and non- 
sectarian and is open to men of all nationalities and all 
shades of opinion. 

2. Aim. — Its object is to band together men of all 
nationalities in a common organisation, to promote friendly 
feeling between nations, and to discourage all tendencies to 
mutual jealousy and distrust. 

3. Method. — The Brotherhood will seek to promote the 
above object by encouraging personal intercourse and the 
interchange of visits between members of different nations, 
by holding public meetings and by employing all other 
legitimate means. 

4. The affairs of the Brotherhood in each country shall 
be managed by a President, one or more Vice-Presidents, a 
Treasurer, Honorary Secretaries, and a Committee, to be 
elected at quinquennial general meetings of members in 
each country. The Committee shall have power to add to 
their number. The term of office in each case shall be 
five years, and in the event of the death or resignation of 
any officer, the Committee are empowered to fill the 
vacancy. 

5. Local branches of the Brotherhood may be formed, 
with power to elect their own officers and committees. 

6. A General International Council of the Brotherhood 
shall be formed as soon as two or more National Committees 
shall have been organised. It shall be composed of a 
number of delegates to be appointed by the National 
Committees in proportion to the population of their respec- 
tive countries. 

7. The local Secretaries shall enrol the names and 
addresses of members in a book to be specially kept for 
the purpose and periodical returns shall be made to the 
National Secretary, and by him to the General International 
Council. 

8. The only qualification necessary for membership shall 
be the expression of sympathy with the aim as set forth 
above. 



378 



INDEX 



117 



377 



235, 



Adam, Mme. Edmond, 12 

on Gambetta, 49 
African native in Eond Street 
Agadir and England, 280 
" Agathon," 330 
Agitators, advice to, 203 
Alexander, J. G., letter from, 126 
Algesiras Conference, 277 
Alliance, danger of, 310 
Alliance jrancaise, 303, 374, 
Alsace-Lorraine, 313 
Alsatian feeling, 314 et seq. 
Alverstone, Lord, 108, 212, 
236, 238, 250 
fine speech by, 203 
letter from, 236 
Ambassadors, French, to London 
since 1870. . 339 
British, to Paris since 1870. .339 
American grain, competition of, jy 
Anatole France, 136 

in London, 299 et seq. 
" Angleterre egoiste," 37 
Anglo-French arrangement (1904), 
243 et seq. 
Eritish and French Parliaments 

on, 248 
German comments on, 257 
Professor Schiemann on, 259 
consequences of, 280 
unexpected effect on Anglo- 
Russian relations, 253 
Anglo-French difficulties, variety 

and enumeration of, 243 
Anglo-French negotiations for 

general settlement in 1894. . 123 
Anglo-French rapprochement, over- 
whelming support in 1902. . 
212, 346 
arguments and resolutions in 
favour of, 340 et seq. 
Anglo-French Treaty of Arbitration 
signed, 229 



Anglo-French Treaty of Arbitra- 
tion, text of, 354 

Anglo-French Treaty of Commerce, 
negotiations for, 35, 36, 64, 65 

Anglo-German rapprochement and 
France, 265 et seq. 

Anglo-Saxon idea, 139 

Anti-English feeling, 40 

Pouyer-Quertier stirs up, 41 

Anti-English and Anti-German ex- 
plosions, alternate, 90 

Anti-Republican revulsion of 1885 . . 

Anti-Semitism, 105 

Anti-Semitism in Paris, 139, 218 

" Apologist," the, at the " Scots 
College," 129 

Arabi's revolt, 151 

Arbitration, limitations to applica- 
tion of, 230 

Arbitration Treaty, Anglo-French, 
history of, 232 
only part of settlement, 242 
text of, 354 

Archbishop of Canterbury, letter 
from, 126 

Arenberg, Prince d', 373 

Aristotle, reference to, 1 

Armaments, wild race of, 309 

Armin, Count von, 25, 27 

Asser, Professor, 108 

Augagneur, M., 237, 288 

Aumale, Due d', 24 

Australian Monroe Doctrine, 23 1 , 247 

Australian project to raid New 
Caledonia in 'nineties, 247 

Avebury, Lord, 179, 184 

Aylesworth, M., 238, 239 

Bahr-el-Ghazal, 112, 113, 144, 

148,149,150,151 
Bailey, chairman of Parliamentary 

Committee, 286, 288 



379 



INDEX 



Baker, Allan, 298 

Baker, Gen., 151 

Baker, J. A., 298 

Balance of power in Europe, 168 

Balfour, Mr. A., 221, 228, 254 

Balliol College, 129, 375 

Barante, M., 9 

Barber, a Paris, 97 

Barclay, Robert, Principal, 129, 368 

Barclay, the apologist at College 

des Ecossais, 368 
Barclay, Thomas, senior, 2, 238 
Barlow, Mr., 327 
Barthelemy St. Hilaire, M., referred 

t0 > 93 
Barthou, M., 153 
Bartlett, Sir E. Ashmead, 124 
Bayard, M., 127 
Baynes, Mr. T. Spencer, 5 
Beaconsfield, Lord, 52 
Beckett, Ernest (Lord Grimthorpe), 
question by, in House of 
Commons, 221 et seq. 
letter from, 251 
Belgium and Germany, 28 

rise of, 119 
Beresford, Admiral Lord Charles, 

34i 
Berlin, General Act of, 112, 113 
Bernstorff, Count, 261 
Bihourd, M., 279 
Bismarck, 17, 26, 27 

on an Anglo-French occupation 
of Egypt, 56 
Black bread, German, and the 

Londoner, 268 
Blackburn, 318 et seq. 
Blackwell, Mr. Thomas, 178 
Blignieres, M. de, 53 
Block, Maurice, 7 
Blount, Sir E., 178 
Blowitz, Mme. de, 15, 16, 19 
Blowitz, M. de, 1, 12 et seq., 295 

modest fortune left by, 23 

some advice of, 30 
Boer War feeling in France, 161 

ananti-Englishopportunity, 168 

and Russia, 150, 167 
Bordeaux, University of, 292 
Bordelais roux, 49 
Bosnia, insurrection in, 38 
Boucherot, M., on French colonisa- 
tion, 87 



Bouchez and Boulanger, 100, 101 
Boulanger, provocation of, to Ger- 
many, 90 

at Brussels, 95 

description of, 96 

interview with, 98 
Boulanger, p£re, 96 
Boulangism, character of, 105 
Bourgeois, Leon, 129 

as sculptor, 208 
Bowes, Mr. Hely, 19 
Bowles, T. G., 249, 320 
Boycott of Exhibition of 1900. . 173, 

184 
Boycott, by English, of Riviera, 186 
Brain-storm, national, 89 
Brassey, Lord, 250, 251 
British Chamber of Commerce, 63 
British Embassy closed in 1900. . 183 
Broadhurst, Mr., 286 
Broglie, Due de, 34 

on alliances with England, 56 

advice of, to his party, 105 
Brown, Mr., of Brown, Shipley & 

Co., 240 
Brunner, Sir John, 252, 299 
Buffet, M., 28, 31 
Balow, Prince von, about, 269 

on Anglo-French arrangement 
(1904), z$ 7 etseq. 

warns M. Bihourd, 279 

on " history on the brain," 270 
Burghclere, Lord, 229 
Burmese war, origin of, 83 
Burnet, Professor, 130, 369 
Burnett, Mr., 286 
Burns, Mr. John, 298 



CjESArism in France and the 

United States, 85 
Cafi des Boulevards, 9 
Cafe de la Rtgence and Chess, 50 
Caix, M. de, 295 
Cambon, M. Paul, 210 
Campbell-Bannerman, Sir H., 177, 
249 
French of, 229 
Caricature, types of, 325 
Caricatures of Queen Victoria, my 

article in Matin on, 172 
Carnegie, Mr. Andrew, 27, 240 
and Dunfermline, 122 



3 8< 



INDEX 



Casimir-Pe*rier, M., 153, 373 

Castelar, 55 

Catholicism, 330 

Caudry, transformation of, 327 

Cazenave, M., 10 

Cecil, Lord Robert, 319 

Central Africa demoralising for 

Europeans, 117 
Central Asia, Anglo-Russian rivalry 

in, 169 
Chamberlain, Mr. Joseph, 229 
persuasive powers of, 70 
hopes for South African peace, 

165 
volte-face of, 166, 167 
Chambers of Commerce, Association 
of, invitation to (March 1900), 
179 
Chambers of Commerce demonstra- 
tion in Paris, 182 
support given by, to Anglo- 
French rapprochement, 217, 
346 et seq. 
Chenonceaux, chateau de, 11, 53 
Cheradame, M., 295 
Chevalier, Michel, 64, 65 
Chevassus, M., 59 
Chisholm, Lord Provost, 342 
Chivalry, French spirit of, appealed 

to, 174 
Clemenceau, M., on reduction of 
military burdens in 1887. .45 
wrecks Anglo-French control, 

.55 
distrusted by M. Grevy, 206 
anecdote of, 87 
Clerkenwell Green as a safety-valve, 

163 
Cleveland, President, speaks out, 

127 
Clough, Mr. Sam, 298 
Cob den, 36 

persuasive genius of, 64 
foresight of, 70 
admiration for, 6j 
on Arbitration, 69 
daughters of, in Paris, 68 
centenary, article on occasion 

of, 68 
Club motto, 69 
College des Ecossais, 127 
Colonial expansion, when justifiable, 
83 



Colonial expansion mania, tribula- 
tions due to, 89 

Colonial policy of France excites 
distrust, 83 

Colonisation, French, described by 
Frenchmen, 87 

Combarieu, M., 218 

Commercial Committee of House of 
Commons, 227 et seq. 

Commission of Inquiry, Inter- 
national, 257 

" Common sense," grandfather on, 1 

Congo, British agreement with, of 
1894.. 150, 154, 155 
upset by France, 1 1 1 
author's connection with, 114 

Constans, M., trick of, to get rid of 
Boulanger, 102, 103 

Cooper, Mr. E., 319 

Cooper, Mrs., 320 

Coppee, Francois, 142 

Coubertin, Baron Pierre de, 209, 

i85 
Courtney, Mr. W. L., 177, 252 
Crackanthorpe, Montague, K.C., 

212 
Crawford, Mrs. Emily, 17, 49 
Crawford, Sir W., 62, 63 
Cremieux, M., 38 

Creuzot works, Scotsman's connec- 
tion with, 9 
Criticism, disarming of, 324 
Cromer, Lord, on difficulties caused 
by French in Egypt, 56, 57 
on Bahr-el-Ghazal, 151 
Crowe, Sir Joseph, 75 
Crozier, Mr. W. P. 296 
Cupar-Fife, 2 
Czar, peace proposals of, 149 

unaccountable visit of, to 
France in 1901 . . 206 et seq. 



Davidson, Mr. W. E., 183 

Davis, Israel, 39 

Darwin's influence in Germany, 3 

Decazes, Due, 14, 25 

Decorations, proposed, of Legion of 

Honour vetoed in 1900. . 184 
Decugis, M., 196, 252 
Delane, John,|i7 
Delano, Mr., 64 



381 



INDEX 



Dekasse, M., first office of, 153 
on " pin-prick" speech, 159 
visit of, to St. Petersburg in 

1899, mystery of, 165 
probable attitude of, on en- 
couragement given to Boers, 
169 
on invitation to British 
Chambers of Commerce, 171 
sceptical as to English friendli- 
ness, 209 
proposes form of Arbitration 
Treaty, 233 
Deloncle, M., 157 
Democracy and peace, 289 
Descartes and Dr. Farr, 4 
Dilke, Sir Charles, 75. 209, 248,, 277 
Dillon, Dr., 295 
Diplomacy, British, M. Hanotaux 

.on, 354 
Disraeli, 254 

Dogger Bank incident, explanations 
given of, 254 
France mediates, 257 
Donaldson, Sir James, 129, 342 
Dosne, M., 9 
Dreux, mausoleum of Orleans family 

at, 29 
Dreyfus, explanation of suspicions 

o f , 137 

" pardon " of, 138 

promoted, 138 
Dreyfus affair, an epidemic, 135 

English attitude in, 135, 138 

effects of, 162 et seq. 
Dreyfus, Miss Irma, 304 
Dual Alliance, origin of, 169 
Duclerc, M., 14 
Dufaure, M., 14, 25, 31 
Dufferin, Lord, mission of, to Egypt, 

5. 8 
action of, in Burmah, 83 

on French attitude towards 
England, 121 

story of " glass eye " of, 122 

on war, 181 
Duncan's Joan of Arc, 131 
Dunkirk, 6, 7 
Dupuy, M. Charles, 153 

Eastleigh speech, Mr. A. Lee's, 268 
Echo de Paris, 295 
Edwards, Alfred, 294 



Egypt, Gambetta on England and 
France in, 53 
difficulties with French about, 

57 
evacuation of, still in prospect 

in 1894. . 113 
Egyptian question, 244 

regarded in France as a " vital 

interest," 245 
Election, French, of 188 1, result of, 

88 

1885, result ° f 5 S8 

1889 and Boulanger's collapse. 

104 
1902. .139 
El-Teb, battle of, 151 
Embassy, British, not to blame for 
official indifference to Anglo- 
French rapprochement, 215 
Emin Pasha, 152 
Empire Liberal, 2Q 
" England," prestige of, 131 
England, what Frenchmen admire 

in, 322 
England's mission between France 

and Germany, 317 
English goods in France, dumping of, 

42 . 
colonists' resentment resented, 

85 
accent agreeable-to French, 93 
frivolity, 325 
Englishman, educated, admiration 

for France of, 335 
Entente, a plan of action to bring 
about an Anglo-French, 195 
arguments in support of, 340 

et seq. 
model form of resolution in 

favour of, 213 
pioneers of, 201 

progress of, before King Ed- 
ward's visit to Paris, 214, 
346 et seq. 
King Edward and ; 217 et seq. 
perversion of, 283 
"Entente Cordiale " Society, 303, 

377 
Enterprise, difference between 

English and French, 326 
Esprit frondeur of French, 173 
Estournelles d', de Constant, Baron, 

227, 251, 252 



332 



INDEX 



Etrurian peasantry and Gambetta, 

49 . . 
Exhibition of 1900 and diplomacy, 

171 

cessation of boycott of, 184 
Exshaw, Captain, 241 



Faith and belief, 330 
Fails accomplis, effect of, 270, 280 
Farr, Dr. W., 4, 5, 6, 7 
Fashoda affair, 144 

French and English prepara- 
tions for war over, 145 

explained, 148 

artificially fanned in England, 

253 
class among whom resented 

134 
and the " Epatants," 160 
Paris working man on, 161 
Steevens on, 137 
Felix-Faure, M., 153 

President, on peace, 159 
Ferry, M. Jules, purpose of his 
colonial policy, 82 
policy of, deprecated, 85 
name of, execrated, 89 
Field, David Dudley, 108 
F.I.G. (International Brotherhood 

Alliance), 298, 377 
Figaro, 198, 294 
Fleming, Sir Sandford, 241 
Florence, University of Grenoble at, 

292 
Flotten-verein as panic-monger, 269 
Foreign ministers of France since 
1870.. 337 
secretaries, British, since 1870, 

33? . 

Foreign minister's difficulties, 147 

Foreign Office, how to worry, 216 

Foster, Hon. J. W., 240 

Fou furieux, 34 

Fould, M., 9 

Fournier, M., French Ambassador to 

Turkey, 52 
France and Germany join hands 
against England, 112 
drawn together by Russia, 127 
England's r61e between, 317 
Franco-German crisis of 1875.. 25 
et seq. 



Franco-German crises, 1906 and 

191 1, and England, 280 
Franco-Russian friendliness begins, 

3 8 . 

Franco-Scottish Society, 129 et seq.., 

3°3> 359 e } se 1- 

Lord DufFerin on project of, 122 
Franconville, 135 
Franqueville, Comte de, 134, 373 
French intellect and culture, 2 

character, 181 

education, over-fatigue of, 333 

civilisation, driving character 

of, 333 

ministries, duration of, 204 
colonial policy in Asia, vexa- 
tious to England of, 107 
attitude on Queen's death, 190 
in Berlin, 291 
Frenchman on English character, 

325 , • 

Frenchmen in general, moderation 

o f , 323 
so-called want of enterprise of, 

327 
Frentzel, Herr, 272 
Frere-Orban ministry (Belgium), 

109 
Freycinet, M. de, 53, 55 
Friends, Society of, and Madagascar, 

126 
Fumouze, M., 218 
Furby, M. Charles, 7 

Gambetta, 17, 34, 35 

modest fortune of, 23 

one eye of, 122 

oratory of, 55 

M. Grevy's distrust of, 42 

vain appeals of, to common- 
sense in relations with 
England, 42 

and Germany, 50, 82 
Garcin de Tassy, M., 8 
Garnier, M. Joseph, 7, 9 
Gas introduced into Paris, 9 
Geddes, Professor Patrick, 130, 369 
Geoffray, M., 234 
German culture, 2 

humour, 271 

Colonial Party referred to, 85 
Germany, Gambetta's visit to, 50 

and Morocco trade, 276 



383 



INDEX 



Germany, public opinion in, 28 1 

Germany's critical geographical 
situation, 256 

Gladstone, W. E., and the Suez 
Canal question, 59 
principles of, Sir L. Mallet on, 

66 
" hypocritical Mr. William," 37 

Gordon, General, 152 

Gordon, Mr. A. A., 223, 374 

Gorst, Sir John, 115 

GortchakofT, 27, 28 

Gould, Sir F., caricature by, of 
Blowitz, 13 

Gontant-Biron, 26, 27 

Grand ministere, 43 

Grant, Dr. Dundas, 7 

Granville, Lord, 55, 57 

Grebanval, 140 

Gregory, chairman of London 
Trades' Council, 201 

Grenoble, University of, at Florence, 
292 

Grevy, M., 10, 40 
character of, 50 
on French character, 77 
on political conciliation, 316 
on Protection in France, jj 
and Boulanger, 10 1 

Grevyists v. Gambettists, 1 1 

Grey, Sir Edward, 248 
on Nile valley, 125 
resemblance of, to Waldeck- 
Rousseau, 205 

Guiana boundary case, 127 

Gulland, Mr., 318 



Hamer, Alderman, 318, 319, 321 

Hale, Dr. E. E., 240 

Handelstag meeting (1905), 267, 271 

et seq. 
Hanotaux, M., 123 299, 373 

his career, 152 et seq. 

on vagueness of English claim 

on Upper Nile, 123 
on British diplomacy, 356 
Harper, Mr., 179 
Haussmann, M., 124 
Havre, U Petit, 36 
Havre v. Rouen, 43 
Hay, Mr. John, 241 

sad letter from, 241 



Heath.. Richard, 8 

Hegelians in 1874. . 3 

Heine, Armand, on sinews of war, 

40 _ 
Henriquez, Mr., 39 
Herbette, M. Jean, 295 
Herz incident, no 
Hibbert, Rev. Fred., 311 
Hicks, General, 151 
Higginson, John, story of, 246 
Hildebrand, Professor, 3, 4, 5 
Hohenlohe, Prince, 25 
Hollams, Sir John, 50 
Holland, T. E., K.C., 108 
Holland^ Sir W. (Lord Rotherham) 

221, 227,342 
Hornsby. Sir H., 318 
Houldsworth, Sir W., 227 
Hounsfield, Mr. T., 63, 178 
Huillard ; M., 298 
Hume, reference to, 1 
Hutton, Mr. R. H., 5 
Hy, the barber, 97 

Ibsen's " Enemy of the People " 

cited 318 
Ignatieff, General, 38 
Illusions perdu es, 335 
Inspiration, a happy, 198 
Institut Francais du Royaume uni 

197 
International Brotherhood Alliance 

298, 377 
International Law Association at 

the Hague, 108 
Internationalism, network of, 302 
Italy and France, 28 
Italy, French tariff war against, 78 
Italian suspicion of Franco-German 

doings in 191 1. .278 



Jameson Raid, 141 

Japan, Inland Sea of, case, 84 

Jean-Bart, College, 6 

Jean Paul humour, 271 

Jena, 3, 4 

Jephson, Canon, 140 

Jette, Sir L., 239, 348 

Jews, English, character of, 39 

" Jingoism," French, grows, 89 

Journal d'-dllemagne, 291 



3^ 



INDEX 



Kaiser, famous telegram to Kruger 
of, 145 
and King Alfonso at Vigo, 275 
on character of German Empire, 

. 2 75 

in Norway, 260 

Kaiser's English, 269 

Kay, Mr. James, 319 

Keighley, 29S 

Kennedy, Sir C. M., 75 

Kent, Mr. Barton, 303 

Keyzer, Mr. Albert, vi. 

King Edward's visit to Paris, 217 

et seq. 
affection for M. Loubet, 219, 

227 
on England and France, 341 
King Leopold and bills of exchange, 

."4 

Kitchener, Sir Herbert, 144 
Knollys, Lord, 217 
Kruger, President, visit to France of, 
185 



Lambermont, Baron, 114, 115, 119 
Land-grabbing policy, colonial, 83 
Lansdowne, Lord, reverses policy 
towards France, 210 et seq. 
letters from, 212, 235, 312 
despatch of April, 1904, from 
cited, 221 
Lascelles, Sir F., 268 
Lausanne, Stephane, 16, 172, 295 
Lavisse, Ernest M., article by, on 
critical Anglo-French situation, 
176 
Lebel, Rodolphe, 7, 298 
Lecesne, M. Jules, 36 
Lecky, W. E., 343 
Lee, Mr. Arthur, 268 
Lemoine, M. J., 14 
Leon Say, 14 
Leon, Mme. Leonie, 47 
Leopold, King, and his policy, 115, 
118 
admirer of everything English, 
119 
Lepine, M., clever stratagem of, 208 
Leroy-Beaulieu, M. Paul, 8 
Lesseps, visit of Ferdinand and 

Victor de, to London, 59 
Lesseps, Ferdinand de, is chatty, 59 



Lesseps, Victor de, sends tor the 

author, 59 
Levasseur, M., 7, 8 
Leyds, Dr., 168, 170 
Ligue des Patriotes, 142 
Lille, University of, 292 
" Limbs of the inarticulate," 163 
Lion's tail, twisting the, 159 
Lot du Cadenas, 80 
Loubet, President, 182 

characterisation of, 223 et seq., 

begins operations for Entente 
219 

visit of, to London, 223 
Lonie, Alec, 5, 6 

Louis Philippe's, King, remains, 29 
Lowe's (Charles) book on Bismarck, 

28 
Luck defined, 194 
Lyon, Professor Georges (Lille), 197, 

292 
Lyons, Lord, anecdote about, 22 

on French feeling in 1884, 

on Franco-German ill-will in 
1887. .91 
Lytton, Lord, 19 



Macdonald, John, 1 
Mackay, Sheriff ZEneas, 130 
Mackinnon, Sir William, 116 
Macleod, Mr. H. Dunning, 5 
MacMahon, Marshal, 24, 26 
McConnel, E. G., 178 
Madagascar troubles, 126 — 
Maddison, F., 202 
Madrid, University of Bordeaux at, 

292 
Magnard's funeral, 31 
Mahdi's revolt, consequences of, 

Mallet, Sir Louis, 65, 66 

on Treaty of i860. .64 
Manby, " Iron," 9 
Mannesmanns, 276 
Maple, Sir J. B., 178 
Marcere, M. de, 14 
Marchand, Colonel, 134, 144, 146, 

148, 149, 156 
Marsden, J. W., 319 
Marseilles, mayor of, attitude of, on 

President Kruger's visit, 187 



T.Y. 



385 



C C 



INDEX 



Marschall von Bieberstein on public 

opinion, 281 
Martens, F. de, 118 
Mascuraud, Senator, 237, 251 
Materna, Mme., in Brussels, 95 
Matin, le, 294 

as a peacemaker, 172 
Melchior de Vogue*, 373 
Melon, M. Paul, 130 
Metternich on alliances with 

England, 56 
Metz, 313 

Millerand, M., 182, 183, 204 
Millies-Lacroix, anecdote relating 

to, 87 
Ministries, French, since 1870. .337 
Mis chief -making communique at 

Berlin, 265 
Mogador, suggested German coaling 

station at, 277 
Moltke, von, 26, 316 
Monkswell, Lord, 141 
Monod, Gabriel, on French charac- 
ter, 105 
Monroe Doctrine, an Asiatic, 84 

an Australian, 231, 247 
Monson, Sir E., 176, 170 

"pin-prick" speech of, 157 
on arbitration, 211 
Monthly Review and Germany, 268, 

271 
Moore, Mr. Bassett, 240 
Morality and conventionality, 317 
Morgan, Sir W., 247 
Morning News, 294 
Morocco question, 243 
crisis, 274 

provisions of Anglo-French 
settlement respecting, 249 
Mosely Educational Commission, 

2 37 . 

Most-favoured-Nation clause in 

Treaty of Frankfort, 41 

British enjoyment in France of, 

77 
Mulhouse, rowdyism at, under 

French rule, 315 

Municipal ententes, 298 

Muravieff, Count, 149, 150 

Murray, Mr. K. B., 62 



Naquet referred to, 98, 102 



"National honour" considered by 
France to be involved in Egyptian 
question, 244 

Nationalist majority of 1900, in 
Paris, 140, 141 

Nationalists, 139 

Naval bases, Germany's want of, 

z 77 
Neo-Catholicism in France, 330 

Neutrality, guarantors of Belgium's, 

28 
New Caledonia and Australian 

" Monroe Doctrine," 231, 247 
New Caledonian " sphere of influ- 
ence," 244 
Newfoundland question, 232 
New Hebrides question, 231, 244, 
246 
danger of, 247 
Newspapers, foreign correspondents 

of, 147 
New York reporters, 239 
Norddeutscbe Allg. Zeitung, 267 
Norman Angell, 72, 307 
Northcote, Sir Stafford, 175 
Northern cities join actively in 

entente movement, 221 
Nubar Pasha, 15, 152 



Old Catholicism, 331 

Oliphant, Laurence, 20 

Ollivier, Emile, on French illusion 

in 1870.. 313 
Olney, Mr., 127 

explains famous despatch, 128 
Omdurman, battle of, 144; 151 
" Open door," Morocco, 250 
Opportunism, 34 
Oratory, Gambetta's, 55 
Orleans princes and Republic, 28 et 

seq. 



Page, Mr. Nelson, 240 

Palmer, Lieut.-General, 37 

Paris an intellectual Brighton, 334 

Paris, Comte de, 29 

Parkington, Sir Roper, 303 

Parliament, author in, 319 et seq. _ 

Parliaments, comparison of, English 

and French, 321 
Passy, Mr. F., 196, 197, 252 



386 



INDEX 



Peace propaganada, 305 

Pease, Mr., 318 

Pelouze, Mme., 10, t,6 } 53 

Perfide Albion, 37, 57 

" Petersburg " and " Smolensk," 

261 
Petite Gironde. 296 
Petit Havre, 296 
Petit Marseillais, 296 
Petit Parisien, 295 
Petit Temps, 296 
Phillips, Mr. J. S. R., 296 
Phipps, Sir Constantine, 123 
Picot, Georges, 33 
Picquart, Colonel, 136 

promoted, 138 
Pilter, Mr. Thomas, 63 
Pilter, Sir John, 63, 178 
Pitt-Lewis, Mr., K.C., 37 
Plebiscitaires, 98 
Poidatz, M., 172 
Poincare, M., 153 
Politics and noisy trifles, 297 
Polizei-Staat, inconveniences of, 146 
Pollock, Sir Frederick, 19, 130 
Possibilists, 285 
Potter, Mr. A. B., 65 
Potter, Mr. T. B., 65 
Pouyer-Quertier leads Protectionist 

movement, 41 
Pragmatism, 331 
Prdfets, uses of, 323 
President of the Republic, title of, 

adopted, 24 
Presidents of the Republic since 

1870.. 337 
Press, French, influence of, 323 
Pressense, M. de, 24 
Prestige, value of, 329 
Priestley, Mr., 63 
Prince des Joumalistes applied to 

Blowitz, 14 
Prince of Wales, Gambetta meets, 49 
popularity in France of, 174, 
181 
Protection in France, working of, 

181 
Provincial opinion, ignoring of, in 

Parliament, 322 
Public opinion, difference between, 

of London and of industrial 

England, 268 
Public opinion in Germany, 281 



Queen Victoria, caricatures of, 172 
place of, in English sentiment, 

173 
in 1 870-1 . .312 
Queen Victoria's death, Paris meet- 
ing of mourners, 191 
" Quick-change " shirt, 202 

Radowitz, Herr von, 26 
Randies, Sir J. S., 228 
Rapprochement, nature of Anglo- 
French, 214 
Realschule, a Scottish, 239 
Reay, Lord, 129, 130,223,229,369, 

37°, .374 
Reduction of armaments, Gambetta 

on, 45 
Reinach, M. Joseph, 46, 47, 136 
Renan, Ernest, 33 
Retribution by Eastern peoples 

possible, 84 
Republic, baptism of French, 24 
Ripublique jrancaise, 18 
Revanche, the, and Boulangism, 104 
in Morocco, 274 et seq. 
and the entente, 267 
Reventlow, Herr von, on Anglo- 
French agreement (1904), 258 
Rhodes, scheme of Cecil, of Cape to 

Cairo railway, 112 
Ribot, M., 129, 373 

and colony-grabbing policy, 83 
on French foreign policy, 160 
Richet, Professor Charles, 197, 251 
Riley ; Mr., 319 
Ring, M. de, 52 
Ritzema, Mr., 319 
Rives, Mr. G. L., 240 
Rivier, Professor, 118 
Riviera municipalities in 1900 pass 

pro-English resolutions, 187 
Robert Bruce and France, 129, 375 
Robson, Mr., 249 
Rochefort and Boulanger, 99 
Rodays, M. de, 198 
Roi des joumalistes, 14 
Rojdestvensky, Admiral, 254 
Rolin, Professor Alberic, 109 
Rolin-Jacquemyns, " father " of the 
Institute of International 
Law, 108 
European adviser to King of 
Siam, 109 



3*7 



INDEX 



Root, Mr. Elihu, 238 
Rosebery, Lord, 248, 290, 310 

on Anglo-German relations and 
France, 311 
Rotherham, Lord, see Holland, Sir 

W. 
Rouen v. Havre, 43 
Roumania protest against anti- 
Jewish measures in, 38 
Rouvier, M. Maurice becomes 
minister for first time, 44 
and Boulanger, 91 
Roz, M. Firmin, 299 
Russia and France combine against 

England, in 
Russian naval officers in Paris, 1 1 1 
diplomacy, 168 



SacrSs vendus, 287 
Salisbury, Lord, 38, 179 

on relations with France in 
1887. .91 

scepticism of, as to the entente, 

tactics, in Fashoda affair, 210 
Salmon, Prof., 304 
Sands, Mrs., 303 
Sands, W. H., late, 303 
Sannois, 135 
Sassoon, Sir E., 229 
Say, M. Leon, 129 
Schatz, Professor, 292 
Schiemann, Professor, 259, 260, 
274, 276 
on Anglo-French agreement 
(1904), 260 et seq. 
Schindler, M. Chas., 220 
Schnaebele incident, 90, 92 
Schurz, General, 27 
Scotland to be roused, 219 
Scots College in Paris, 129, 292, 359, 

366 et seq. 
Scott, Mr. C. P., 251 
Scott, Sir John, 114 
Scottish Chambers of Commerce to 

the fore, 220 
Secret clauses ; on, 277 et seq. 
" Seize mai" 34 
Serious and serieux, 325 
Shaw, Lord, of Dunfermline, 122 
Shimonoseki, treaty of, 127 
Ship building and war scares, 307 



Shipton, Mr., 286 

Shoreditch Town Hall meeting, 201 

Siam, no 

Anglo-French incident in, 106 

French aggression against, 107 
Siamese question, 244 

danger of, 248 
Simon, Jules, 14, 31, 32 et seq., 129 

on divorce, 32 

his last speech, 132 
Sinclair, Mr. L., 227, 228 
Slave Trade General Act, 15 
Smith, Mr. Adolphe, 287 
Snowden, Mr. Philip, 318 
Snowden, Mrs., 321 
Social Democracy, 285 
Somerset House, old, 4, 5 
Spencer's influence in Germany, 3 
Spender, Mr. J. A., 255, 295 
Stanley, H. M., as diplomatist, 
116 

and the Emin relief expedition, 

. x 5 2 

Statistics, author's work in, 4 

Stead, Mr. Herbert, 140 

Steed, Wickham, 295 

Steevens, G. W., on Dreyfus, 136 

St. Pierre de Calais, 327 

St. Petersburg, University of Nancy 

at, 292 
Stodginess made pleasant, 334 
Strauch, Colonel, 113, 116 
Suez Canal, English Eastern trade 
kicks at charges and regula- 
tions imposed in, 58 
English directors of, impossible, 

60 
shares, British, purchase of, 37, 

Sugar conference, 34 
Switzerland, French tariff-war 
against, 79 



Tagliche Rundschau, 266 
Tangiers, Kaiser's visit to, 274 
Tarde, Alfred de, 330 
Tardieu, M., 295 
Tariff-war, Franco-Italian, 78 
Tariff-war against Switzerland, 79 
Tel-el-Kebir, battle of, 151 
Temps, le, 220, 295 
Tesserenc de Bort, M., 34 



388 



INDEX 



Thiers, M., 9, 14,20,21,34,35 

anecdote about, 21 
Times correspondents' omniscience, 

7 

Times gives entente an early lift, 199 
Tours, political centre in 1871 at, 11 
Trade Unions which worked on the 

Entente., 348 
Traill, Dr., 6 
Treaty of Commerce, England 

misses her chance of getting a 

fairly good, 76 
Treaty of Arbitration, negotiations 

detailed, 232 et seq. 
Tree, Sir Herbert, 300 
Triple Alliance, origin of, 167 
Trower, Mrs., 277 
Trueblood, Dr., 240 
Twiss, Sir Travers, 108 



Uzes, Dowager Duches9e d', and 
Boulanger, 97 



Voltaire, reference to, 1 

Vox populi as Court of Appeal, 138 



Waddington, M. Richard, 93, 94 
Waddington, M. William, 15 

French ambassador to London, 

.9 2 

Waddingtons, origin of the, 92 



Waechter, Sir Max, 261 

on Anglo-German rivalry, 308 
Waldeck-Rousseau, 204 

comes upon the scene, 44 

compared with Sir E. Grey, 
205 

painter, 208 
Walkley, A. B., 300 
Wallace, Sir D. M., 223 
Wallace, Professor William, 3 
Walter Scott honoured at Kinghorn, 

239 

Walton, Sir J., 249 

War scares and shipbuilding, 309 
elimination of causes of, 310 
of 1870 and England, 312 
danger of, for popular liberties, 
316 

Webster, Mr. Richard, 108 
See Lord Alverstone. 

Weiss, M. J. J., 14 

Westlake, Mr. John, K.C., 108 

Westminster Gazette and Dogger 
Bank incident, 255 

White, Mr. Herbert, 296 

Wilkinson, Prof. Spencer, 295 

William I., Emperor, 27 

Wilson, Mr. A. J., 5 

Wilson, Daniel, 10 

Wilson, Sir Charles R., 75 

Wingate, Sir R., 151 

Wolf, Lucien, 296 

Worms, Baron H. de, 39 



Zola, 136 



BRADBURY, ACNEW, & CO. LD., PRINTERS, LONDON AND TONBRIDGE. 



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